11w, 6d: Falling down

Ouch. I slipped down the stairs on Saturday morning, effectively waking everyone up with my loud crash and crying. Thankfully, I think the baby is okay - I've had no bleeding or cramping at all since then, and I fell on my back, not my stomach at all - although I am still a bit sore at the spot on my back where I hit.

Today we get to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time! Thankfully, my symptoms have done some major increasing over the past week, so I am extremely optimistic for this appointment, and only about 10% worried. But then again, I am such a worrywart that it would be odd for me to not be worried, especially after taking a spill. Ugh, why am I such a klutz?!

Tomorrow marks the 12 week mark, which I am so thankful for! Two more weeks of the first trimester, and then onto the easy (I hope?) second trimester! Tomorrow is also our first ultrasound of the baby, and this should be a very detailed picture, as they are going to be measuring the nasal translucency and looking for possible chromosomal defects. You can pray that everything looks beautiful and perfect, and that our baby is healthy and whole. Tomorrow also marks when we are going to start telling everyone about Baby Burnham! It will be so much fun to have everyone in on the secret!

I will try to update later after the heartbeat appointment, which is at 4 pm!

UPDATE:
T-I-double gah-RRRRR: We couldn't find the heartbeat! Not to worry, my friends, the midwife warned us before starting that she might not be able to find it. It seems that the baby is still cushioned low in my pelvic cavity, and combined with the old Doppler system they had, it just wasn't strong enough to find the wee heartbeat. They did, however, find my heartbeat through the placenta, so everything is progressing just fine and she wasn't worried one bit. She said they should have an easier time finding the heartbeat at the 16 week appointment on January 5, and that, of course, we should be able to see it tomorrow on the ultrasound. I also got my flu shot at the appointment. I didn't get it earlier because I was worried that it might affect the development, but I was more worried now about getting a bad case of the flu since everyone's passing it around at work.

Tomorrow is our first ultrasound! Please pray for my appointment, that everything would go smoothly and that our beautiful baby boy or girl will be healthy! With my luck, they probably won't even be able to find the baby! "Uhh, I'm sorry, ma'am, but your uterus just isn't where it should be..."

11w, 3d: Only 200 days to go!

Man, did I have a rough night last night. Sorry to Jamie, Brian and Debra for looking like I hadn't showered for weeks (don't worry, I had actually bathed less than 24 hours before!) and to poor, poor Jonny for having to deal with me yelling at him approximately every 5 seconds (that's not much of an exaggeration, either). But, to make myself look a little less evil, he was sitting on the couch doing coding for a final project, while I ran around the apartment cleaning and packing for our trip tonight. It did bother me a *little* that he could claim to be working while sitting on his butt all evening watching Seinfeld and movies.

Ahhh, Christmas. Luckily, my wonderful mother has absolved me of buying her and my father presents, and I have managed to figure out something for Matt, Naomi, and Jonathan's brother Drew, so I only have four more immediate family members to shop for. I love online shopping! It is my favorite invention EVER.

I'm so excited to start getting baby things! Since I assume I will never actually have a baby shower (my peeps are too scattered now to have much of a significant shower, unless I travel to where our families are), I think the most things he/she will get will probably come for Christmas, a very convenient present time. To give you a peek on our registry, here is the pattern I picked out for the stroller, high chair and pack 'n play.


We will be moving states away right after the baby is born, so we're going to stick with not many big ticket items that we will have to move! I'm so excited to get little baby things. Jamie and I already went out before Baby Burnham was conceived and bought two little outfits that I just love looking at. Babies are so precious.

11w, 2d: I'm so hungry I could eat a...

Horse, cow, pig, etc. You name it, I could eat it. My appetite has DOUBLED over the past two days. Why? Who knows, maybe the placenta-making? I blame everything on that now-a-days. It's a very convenient excuse for, say, not getting the cat a scoop of food until the next morning. Anyhow, we're ordering Papa John's for dinner tonight (WOOHOO) and I am so excited I could burst! Yummy pizza!

Tomorrow we are heading to New Hampshire with our life group (read: Bible study) for a nice, relaxing weekend away. No Sunday school! It'll be nice to relax with everyone and NOT go hiking when they go. Yay for excuses to stay inside! I love you, Baby!

11w, 1d: First morning sickness episode

I actually don't know if that title is correct, but today was my first experience with actually losing my breakfast during this pregnancy (not just being nauseous). Brushing my teeth has made my gag reflex jump a few times, but today I actually couldn't keep my poor oatmeal down. Sigh. I'm hungry now.

11w, 0d: We think it's a....

Boy! Wow, almost EVERYONE guessed girl (6 to 1). Who guessed boy? Just wondering... Now don't get me wrong, I would love to have a girl first, but somehow I just think the baby is a boy (as does Jonathan)!

This week, our baby is about the size of a fig (1.5 inches long). His or her hands are going to be able to close soon, and his or her bones are getting harder. There are also tooth buds forming under his or her gums! He or she is stretching and kicking, and may even be hiccuping, due to his or her forming diaphragm. The placenta is now forming, which explains how exhausted I am currently (making a baby and a placenta!), and will be forming for the next few weeks.

I think I am mostly done with nausea (not that it was really that bad ever) and although my breasts are still growing, they aren't really painful or sensitive right now. I do need more sleep, though - I took a two hour nap last night and then got 7 hours of sleep and am still exhausted. I will be so happy when Jonathan's class is over and we can both sleep better!

10w, 6d: Weight and Waiting

Well, I'm steadily gaining weight! I was up to 88 lbs. at my 8-week appointment, and am already up to 91.5 with another week to go before my 12 weeks appointment! Yeah, I know that you're not supposed to gain weight in your first trimester, usually, but I'm happy to know that I'm getting closer to a normal weight. Underweight mothers make underweight babies, and I would like a nice 8 pounder, so I'm just going to keep gaining weight, hopefully! It'd be nice to be closer to 95 or 100 lbs. by the beginning of the second trimester, so that I can be more on track for gaining the normal pregnancy weight after that. That's my goal!

I'm so excited to be able to tell EVERYONE in eight days!!! I feel so AWFUL about withholding information this important from some of my bestest friends... Aparna, Sarah, Rashida, Debra, Katelyn, Karlen, Jennifer, Molly, Chris, and everyone else: I'm so sorry that we haven't told you all yet! Just eight more days and you will all know, I promise! (As long as there is a wiggly baby with a beautiful heartbeat on that ultrasound next Tuesday...) I cannot wait, that will be SUCH a relief to my mind. For everyone who doesn't know why we were not telling (most) people, I had some bleeding from weeks 6-9 that was very worrisome (50% of people who bleed in early pregnancy have healthy babies... wait, those odds aren't very good!). At this point, the baby could still have died and not miscarried properly (we haven't heard or seen a heartbeat yet), but we are praying and hoping for a beautiful, strong heartbeat at our regular Ob/Gyn appointment on Monday and a precious wiggly baby on the ultrasound next Tuesday!

Remember to keep voting in the gender poll, and I may reveal our thoughts tomorrow!

10w, 1d: Belly shot

UPDATE:

It's now in technicolor!


I think my butt may be getting bigger than my stomach. :(

10w, 0d: We're one quarter there!

Phew, this pregnancy is one quarter of the way done! Woohoo! I've done so much work so far. ;-) Only 3.5 weeks left of the first trimester!

The baby is the size of a small kumquat now (1.25"). I've never seen a kumquat before, but Google assures me that this picture is accurate. Baby has fingernails now, and peach fuzz hair starting to grow on his/her body.

Jonathan and I are going on the record to say we think the baby is a _____*. (I thought that when I first found out I was pregnant, but I was wavering for a while, and now I feel very strongly!) We'll know for sure on January 20 at 9 am! We will also have a Fetal Echocardiogram that day, where they will check the baby for congenital heart defects because my brother was born with heart problems.

In the meantime, our first ultrasound is two weeks from today! We'll hear the heartbeat the day before that at my 12 week appointment.

*I decided not to post what we think the baby is yet. I'm going to put up a poll for you guys to take on what you think the baby is. When I feel that I've gotten enough responses, I'll let you know what we think!

Update:
Please comment on this post if you voted, so that I know who voted! (You can tell us what you voted, if you'd like.)

9w, 6d: Sometimes, I'm so tired that I could sleep forever.

Oh my. This is one tired day. I think this weekend perhaps added to my current exhaustion. Not enough sleep on Saturday night, probably could have used another hour or two last night.

Today was Christmas decorating day at work. We would have waited until after Thanksgiving, but we will have a lot of work the first two weeks of December, so we wanted to get the decorations up while it was still slow. Man, we have a lot of decorations here (including a 7 foot tree with lots of ornaments!). I didn't eat all morning because we were decorating (if you are ever pregnant, the whole "six small meals" is the way to go), so I went from breakfast at 7:45 to lunch at 12:00 with nothing in between. Not a good idea for the blood sugar!

I guess I don't have much to say today. Sorry, I must be too tired or something. :-P

Tomorrow is 10 weeks!

9w, 3d: 10 things we will not be naming Baby Burnham

1. Sufako - sad, but true. Sorry, cousins.
2. He's a Heretic! Burnham! - note: Burnham is pronounced "burn 'em"... say this one fast and you'll get it.
3. Anything starting with a "B" - sorry Jamie, but I can't imagine making a child live with the name "Bobby Burnham" (too Brady Bunch-esqe); also, my grandmother had a kick for B names and has already taken the "good" ones. Plus, I bet people would nickname the kid "B.B."... ewww.
4. Willis - Enough said, I think.
5. Shanequa - this was Jonathan's "no," although I thought it was a good suggestion!
6. Any boy's name from the Old Testament (Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Jonah, etc.)- Jonathan thinks these are too "hip" and/or weird and he doesn't care if they have the best meanings ever (one is still on our list because I demand it - Micah: who is like God?)
7. Augustus/Augusta - okay, Jonathan actually put these on his list. Maybe to try to get me to kill him? Or maybe because he thinks Augustus was cool. (He just said, "Wouldn't boy/girl twins with those names be awesome?" Heh.)
8. Anything spelled funny - Alisabbeth is not going to cut it. That poor kid would never have his/her name spelled or pronounced correctly. Ever.
9. Jonathan - sadly, my husband refuses to let me name the baby after him. So, if I want the baby to be called "Jack", I have to go with Jack or John. Sigh.
10. Abigathan or Jonagail - I've heard of people combining the parents' names to make their baby's name. I guess they're trying to follow a similar, but non-sexist, version of naming the firstborn boy after the father? In any case, our names do not go well together.

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Woah, the ObGyn just called to schedule my 18 week ultrasound. Crazy early, dudes. January 20 we will know the sex of our baby!!!

9w, 2d: Comments are fixed!

Ah ha! Now you don't have to register for Blogspot/gmail to be able to leave a comment! I fully expect my friends to leave some comments now. :)

These Bella bands are great! I was having problems with sitting down and pants cutting into my poor abdominal region, but now I just have a nice, stretchy Bella band instead.

My new Maternity Boppy is very nice, too. The cover it came with is a bit scratchy, but it is already softening with one wash and some use. I told Jonathan last night that he has been replaced... I officially don't need to snuggle with him any more! (Which is nice for both of us because when he is asleep he continually rolls away from my touch. :-P)

I would highly recommend both of these products! I got mine from Doula Shop.

Update:

There are only 2 other Abigail B.'s in America!

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 2 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

But, there are 29 other Jonathan B.'s!

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 29 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Update #2:

9w, 1d: He/She is a fetus now!

We reached another milestone this week: the baby is now a fetus, not an embryo any longer!

Fun fact: about one quarter of a million new neurons are being produced in our baby's brain every single minute! Woah.... MIT, here he/she comes!

9w, 0d: Our Little Grape

Baby Burnham is officially a fruit now! For those who are a bit confused about what I am talking about, babycenter.com goes through each week how big your baby is, and starting at four weeks the order is poppy seed to sesame seed to lentil to blueberry to kidney bean and now to grape at 9 weeks! We have finally moved out of the legume category and will be on fruits (and maybe some vegetables) for the rest of the pregnancy. Woohoo!

The baby also has all of his/her vital organs developed, and is ready to grow and grow and grow!

Just a warning: babycenter also tells me that mood swings set in somewhere between 6 and 10 weeks and hang around until sometime in the 2nd trimester, so you may want to avoid me for the next few weeks. :-P

As long as we remember, I'll have Jonathan take my 9 week belly picture tonight. I also have some pictures of our first baby gift to post, too! Thanks, Jamie, Jennifer, Bill and Brian!

UPDATE:
My bella bands and maternity boppy are arriving today! Woohoo!!!

UPDATE #2:

Belly picture:

You can tell my pants are unbuttoned here... Heh. Sorry, guys. They don't button any more! My lovely Bella bands arrived today, though, so I can start leaving my zipper down, too! (For those of you who aren't educated about Bella bands, they are basically a stretchy band that goes around your waist/belly and holds up your pants, so that you can leave your pre-pregnancy pants unbuttoned/unzipped and wear them longer into your pregnancy!

Our first baby present was a lovely Willow Tree figurine: "New Life." 5 points to the first person who can guess where it is!

8w, 6d: First Look scheduled

For my interested viewers, our "First Look" ultrasound and blood work will be done on December 9 at 8:30 am. Now to figure out how to get off for two appointments two days in a row without letting on to my boss... I promise I'm going to tell him after these appointments! I just want to hear a heartbeat before I go getting the whole world's hopes up.

8w, 4d: General update

I'm getting better at thwarting morning sickness! I just have to eat constantly, and, poof, I'm just fine! Luckily, I think I have permission to gain up to 45 lbs. this pregnancy, so at least I shouldn't be gaining too much weight.

In other news, I think I could probably change over to a B cup now if I really wanted to. I am basically popping out of my current bras. Jonathan is really loving this.

Need to take husband to see Quantum of Solace. He is so jealous that his PARENTS saw it on opening night and he didn't. Sigh.

8w, 1d: Morning (all day) sickness

Feeling so bleh now. The morning sickness is really starting to hit me. When I even *think* about something gross, I dry heave. Thankfully, no throwing up has occurred yet. Sorry if that's TMI (too much information)! My scarf just barely being tied around my neck also makes me a bit sick. Even thinking about my scarf being around my neck is making me sick. Oh my.

8w, 1d belly shot:

7w, 6d: First midwife appointment

I arrived to the Obstetrics office *25 minutes early* (I was aiming for 15, but was a bit off :-P). For the next 25 minutes I sat frantically wondering where my loving husband was, as he was supposed to meet me there. As I was already quite nervous to see the midwife, I was making myself sick over him not being there. Or was that the morning sickness that seems to be just starting up?

I was brought into a room and worked up by Katie, not my lovely nurse Julia, but very sweet and kind just the same. Katie took my BP (100/80, I think) and weight (88 lbs - 3 gained already! only 45 more to go... hahaha). Luckily, I had come in in May for my yearly appointment, so the midwife didn't need to do the breast exam/pap smear/other lovely gyn stuff, and only had to feel the size of my uterus... Which, in case you're wondering, is approximately the size of a grapefruit by 8 weeks! Katie also found my loving husband after he had dashed in 5 minutes late and brought him back to where I was.

Mary, my midwife-for-this-appointment, (who came in after 25 minutes of waiting!) was very, very sweet. She told me that I have O negative blood type (like my two brothers, mom, and probably my sister), which relieved some long-held guilt that I had been the cause of sensitizing my mom to the Rh-factor, thus causing the death of several of my mom's later pregnancies... Phew! (Seriously, that was a major concern of mine since I learned about antibodies in AP Biology.) Sadly, that means that I HAVE TO GET THE SHOTS. Ugh. I think those come at 28 weeks (unless you bleed earlier in the pregnancy, then you have to get it immediately) and somewhere right before you have the baby. The point is to prevent your body from making antibodies against the Rh-factor, which would attack a future baby who was Rh positive. Our babies have a 50% or 100% chance of having the Rh-factor, depending on whether Jonathan has this on one or both of his genes. The first baby who is Rh-positive will never be attacked, as the mother does not create the antibody until coming in contact with the baby's blood during a miscarriage or delivery. Future babies would be attacked in-utero, thus four out of five miscarriages that my mother had. (The first, Ashley, was due to an incompetent cervix, and we believe that she must have been Rh positive.) Short genetics lesson... Sorry.

Other tests that were done last time: no HIV (big surprise there!), no cystic fibrosis gene, no anemia (that was actually a surprise to me!), and everything else they tested looked great!

Because my brother was born with a hole in his heart (well, mom actually corrected me later and said that it was actually opened by the doctors putting him on a cold gurney while they were trying to get him oxygen because he wasn't breathing on his own), Mary said she may want to get my baby an Echocardiogram with the ultrasound at 18 weeks. Just to be sure that everything is okay... She said the relation was kind of remote (being my brother, not a direct ancestor of the baby), and she would check with an OB to see if it was necessary or not, but that makes me feel like she really cares and is being thorough with my baby. I am perfectly happy to have the Echo just to be sure. I think my family's history of heart problems maybe pushed her a bit more in that direction.

Due to the long history of *both* types of diabetes in my family (and gestational diabetes!), I get to be tested for gestational diabetes EARLY at 20 weeks, instead of 28! Lovely! (Not.) Basically, you go in to take this test and drink this *super* sugary concoction, wait an hour, and then have your blood sugar tested. Cute gem of a story: my mom told me that when she took one of her tests (I think it was for one of my younger siblings, when she was actually *going* to the OB), she drank a coke immediately before the test ("But nobody told me not to!"), and the doctor about had a heart attack when he saw that her blood sugar was so high. But she explained, and they did the test again later. Nice.

The midwife seemed happy with my 25 minutes of walking home from work (at a brisk pace... which is just my normal pace, for those of you who have never walked next to me), and told me I was probably right to stop walking with all of the spotting that I had had. She said it was probably due to my cervix being extra-sensitive during pregnancy (this is normal), but after a few more weeks, I should work back up to walking that much again and it wouldn't have any effect once I was further along.

Mary confirmed my due date of June 23 with a wheel that calculates things from LMP (last menstrual period) or ovulation date (which I knew). I thought the wheel was funny, because my mom has one from 24 years ago when she was pregnant with me.

There was a second midwife along with Mary; I think her name was Jennifer. She is taking over most of Mary's time at the office, since Mary has another office somewhere else that she is going to be shifting most of her time to. It was nice to meet both of them, especially since Jennifer will probably see me more often, since my appts. will most likely stay on Mondays. Jennifer looked *extremely* familiar to me, so I'm not sure if she just looks like someone I know, or I've actually met her somewhere... But considering I didn't think I knew any midwives, she must just look like someone.

My next appointment is scheduled for December 8, and sometime between December 5 and 16 will be my "First Look" screening. This is a new screening test for Down Syndrome and Trisomy 13, which counts some proteins in the mother's blood, as well as an ultrasound to measure the nachal folds (the length of the baby's neck?). They then calculate your chances of your baby having Down Syndrome or something else, and give you the option of doing CVS or amniocentesis later on, if you are high risk. We are only doing this test because it comes with an ultrasound, which otherwise would not be done until 18 weeks!!! I thought that was a bit long to wait to see my baby, considering we haven't even been able to hear a heartbeat yet. The whole thing seems a bit imagined with zero visible or audible proof of being pregnant (although the doctor's confirmed it with a blood test). I guess my growing pooch is kind of proof. Anyway, the test is free to us and it has no risk of harming the baby (just being a blood test and an ultrasound), so it seemed like a great deal to us!

We left around 3:50, considering the 25 minutes of waiting for the midwife, wasn't too long of an appointment. Everything looks great and we're very excited for our "First Look" at the baby!

7w, 0d: Belly shot!

Just a quick belly shot, since I am about to FALL ASLEEP!

6w, 6d: Hip pain is SO not hip.

Sunday was a day of hip pain. And by "hip pain" I mean throbbing and painful hips that radiated pain into my lower back and knees and could not be alleviated by sitting, standing or laying down. It probably could have been alleviated by heat (using a hot pad), but as raising one's body temperature when pregnant is very dangerous for the baby, I couldn't try that either. Sigh. I really hope that my pregnancy experience is not completely scarred by severe hip and back pain. But considering my luck with morning sickness thus far (complete and utter lack, in fact), I think that this pain may be my pay back.

I am really tired. This manifests itself in an avoidance of anything social. For example, DH (dear husband) really wants to watch the election returns tomorrow night with some friends. However, The Hormones would much rather stay at home and wake up to the results on Wednesday. Returns don't start coming in until 9 pm EST, and I'm usually conked out by 10 pm. I wish that my strong interest in the results would help keep me awake longer than that, but The Hormones have completely taken over my body and will simply override my desires if I choose not to comply with them. So we'll see how late I make it...

The more I read about the birthing process, the more I think that a C-section would be nice. Or perhaps adoption. I think The Hormones had control of my body when I decided that trying to conceive would be wonderful and they blocked out the thought of how difficult birthing a child would be. Now it is too late to go back. Uh oh.

6w, 5d: Telling our life group!

Today was the day that we decided to tell our life group about Baby Burnham... The plan was that I would make cupcakes to celebrate Jonathan's birthday (a few weeks late, since he had been out of town for the two previous weekends). I wanted to make them unscramble the letters to "June 23," my due date, and decipher the significance of that date. There are six people in our life group (including us), so that would be the perfect amount of cupcakes, so as to not draw suspicions. I spelled out a semi-odd message on the cupcakes to Jonathan: "Jonathan, you are 23!" That phrase was chosen because it would give me the necessary letters and numbers to pick out for June 23. What a great coincidence that Jonny turned 23 and our baby is due on the 23rd!

Anyway, I told Jamie not to make anything for dessert this week, that we would bring cupcakes for Jonathan's birthday. Wellllll, the pregnancy hormones must have fried my brain, because I left my beautiful creation at home! Sigh.

So instead of telling them via cupcakes (all of my creativity gone to waste!), I decided to blurt it out in the following manner: when we were opening our books to begin our discussion, I said, "I'm really sorry, guys, that we didn't get a chance to read the chapters this week, but pregnancy just makes you sooo tired." There was about 1.5 seconds of silence and then WHOOSH I was ambushed by Jennifer and Jamie coming to proclaim their joy for us! The boys took slightly longer to figure out what was going on... Bill told us later that his thoughts were: "Yes, I can see how pregnancy would make you very tired. That makes a lot of sense." (WHOOSH - running of girls) "Ooooohhhhh."

Everyone was so excited for us, and we spent most of the rest of life group hopping up and down and talking about babies. What a lovely day it was!