9 weeks

This week the baby will grow to be about 1" (about the size of a Strawberry) if not a little more; another doubling in size from week 7 to week 9... so awesome =) I have noticed my waistline has changed a bit... normal pants are getting to be snug. I am glad I went ahead and purchased a couple pairs of maternity pants ahead of time... they are SOOOO comfortable to wear. Sadly, I will be needing more than the 2 I purchased but all in good time!

Symptoms for this week are pretty much the same... nausea is better some days more than others. What's really bizarre is the days I feel good, chances are I still throw up. Anytime I cough, I end up gagging and needing to vomit. Gross. It stinks right now because I have a cold (not that I wasnt already backed up with excess mucus, but now it's even worse lol) and cough. I'm gagging the whole day, lol. Hooray!

My mood swings are in full-gear as well. Mostly, I feel fine one minute to another; I am finding myself getting angry much easier than normal. Yesterday I had a few hours to myself and ended up vegging out on the couch watching a movie and all but cried through the whole thing. Aren't hormones fun? =)

I can smell EVERYTHING individually as well. Our bedroom is musty and it almost kills me to sit up here before the smell overwhelms me. Luckily with the last week or so being nice we've had the window cracked. There are certain people I cannot be around because they smell awful... I'm not talking about BO or anything... just their natural "scent" (I suppose) is too overwhelming and nasty to me. Landon smells very good to me. Probably the best smell I have come across recently as a matter of fact. Alex is next in line after that. I didn't have heightened sense of smell with Landon so this is all new to me. Kind of cool to have, but with my weak stomach it ruins it at times =(

My hips have been aching during the day the last week or so and I couldn't figure out why for a long while. The baby isn't big enough to affect me in this way yet, and it isn't my sciatic nerve. I woke up in the middle of the night a few nights ago to find that my legs were thrown every-which-way, as if I were doing advanced yoga in my sleep. Crazy! As soon as I straightened them out, my hips started aching again. LIGHT BULB!! So now I am purposely waking myself up in the night a few times to correct my legs if they are all kinds of twisted. I don't know why I sleep so awkward when I'm pregnant. I did this with Landon too, except I gave myself charlie horses all the time. Weird!

Other than all that, though, I am feeling good! I have plenty of energy... I still want to take a power nap sometimes but I remember being MUCH more tired than this with Landon. I don't mind having this energy though =) I feel guilty when I take naps while Landon is around... he's such a sweetie and will let me for a good 30-60 minutes without getting into mischief but I would rather be awake and playing with him than napping.

Baby Names

Holy crap... all I can say about this is this child had better be a girl, or else he may NOT have a name if it's a boy........ We have a couple options on girls' names and that will not be a problem.

Alex and I cannot agree on ANYTHING for boy names. Not. One. Bit.

He likes goth/emo names like Xavier or Tristan...... or a goofy name like Remy. (No offense if other people like these names... but they are definitely not for my potential son.) I would name an iguana Xavier.... all the Tristan's I've ever known have been complete douchebags........ and Remy? Well, it's just weird to me.

I've been through my baby name book from A-J so far and Alex veto's ANY name I throw at him that even has even the SLIGHTEST hint of interest to me. It's annoying. REALLY annoying.

This is going to be a long road...... luckily we still have a little over 31 weeks to decide (if it turns out to be a boy). That being said, 31 weeks might NOT be long enough.... *grumble grumble*

Very odd sensation...

I'm a little nervous.... my doctor had told me I had a cyst on my right ovary (which I had suspected) during my ultrasound on the 15th. He said it might cause some discomfort and it might burst, but it is nothing to worry about as most cysts take care of themselves in time.

The last few days it has been hurting me... not sincere pain, just dull aching on a more frequent level than normal. Last night, this morning, and again just now, I have had this STRANGE pulling sensation around what I believe to be my ovary. It's weird. It's the kind of sensation/tugging you have on a muscle when you get a charlie-horse, except there's no pain; just discomfort.

I don't know what to make of this.... I don't feel like anything is wrong really. My doctor would have mentioned if I was having an ectopic pregnancy. Honestly, I am 99% sure this baby is just fine. I hate worrying over nothing. I am going to probably wait it out another few days (so long as it doesn't become painful) and see if it stops hurting on it's own.

On another note, I discovered today that I have an ingrown eyelash. It's growing INTO the top of my eyelid, under the skin. Gross. Disgusting. It doesn't hurt either, but it's VERY annoying to look at and gross to think about. I have to call a dermatologist tomorrow and see if they can get me in to remove it as well.

Ohhhh life.... I love all your little minor inconveniences along the way, lol!

8 Weeks

This week the baby will grow to be about the size of a raspberry (somewhere around 3/4"). All major organs and muscles are present and the baby will start to "kick" as well. I will not feel it for quite some time yet though, lol.

Anywho, my symptoms recently have actually changed again. I'm still tired, but not as exhausted as I've been. I still have an over-abundance of mucus in my head. As for the nausea and morning sickness, it's pretty much been non-existent the last couple days. I'm not sure why, but it's been nice to not be nauseated all day every day. I've vomited several times over the course of the last week so I thought for sure morning sickness had set in and was here for the long haul. I become nauseous still several times a day, but it's mild usually and goes away after I eat grapes. Grapes seem to be the only "cure" so to speak.

During my ultrasound, Dr Brondz did confirm that I do have a minor cyst on my ovary and it's nothing to worry about. He also mentioned that if it ruptured it might cause me discomfort for several days but nothing unmanageable. I believe this happened either yesterday or the night before... it's such an annoying little/mid ache all the time.... My hips were stressed out yesterday because of the discomfort and I felt like I had a 4 pound baby sitting on them all day. Ugh. At least it should subside soon.

Other than that, I'm feeling fine and excited that things are progressing right along!

Introducing....... baby Sprout!

I had my first ultrasound on Wednesday (the day after Valentines) and despite everything going just fine with this pregnancy, I was so nervous upon the "moment of truth". First off, I was supposed to go to the doctor's office at 8am. Alex was excited because he didn't need to be at work until 10 and wanted to see our little miracle. I walked in the office and they informed me that the doctor had an emergency c-section and wouldn't be back until later. I rescheduled my appointment for 1pm the same day... I was sad, but mostly because Alex wouldn't get to be there.... At least it was the same day though!! =)

So fast-forward to 1pm... Landon and I show up at the doctor's office again and wait patiently in the waiting room. The nurse opens the door and calls my name, to which my son prances over to her and says, "Hi doctor, we are here to see a baby." She giggles and tells him she's the doctor's helper and asks if he is excited to see his sibling. He announces again to another nurse in passing, "My mommy made a baby ALL BY HERSELF." He did nothing but charm the pants off of all the nurses =) My little prince... lol

I thought they were going to do a trans vaginal ultrasound (basically, stick a machine in your hoo-haa to see the baby) but to my surprise, the doctor wanted to try through the abdomen first. I got really nervous at the last moment thinking, "What if this was really all in my head?? What if there's a baby but no heartbeat?"

Almost as quickly as I started worrying, the doctor went to work and in no time at all saw our little Sprout. Landon was confused and asked where the baby was, so I pointed to the screen for him. He exclaimed, "That doesn't look like a baby! Mom, you're crazy!" The doctor got a good laugh from it and I explained that it's a tiny baby right now but would grow to be adorable and look like a baby. He mulled it over in his head for a good couple minutes, then told me, "It's not very cute.... I'm going to play the DS." >.< What a goof!

Dr. Brondz told me I was measuring 7weeks and 4days which was "behind" what he thought. I was BEAMING and told him it was only a day ahead of what I was predicting. So officially, we are due September 29th! This little bean had a strong heartbeat of 158bpm and was absolutely perfect! I could not have asked for a more perfect scenario for the day!

7 weeks today

Sprout will grow to be about the size of a blueberry this week (approx 1/2"). Doubling in size in a matter of a weeks time is nothing short of miraculous :) I took a picture of myself at four weeks and I took one this morning of 7 weeks... I actually look like I have lost some tummy bloat.... probably due to the lack of food I have eaten. Nothing sounds appetizing, ever. I have to force myself to snack every few hours or else I am beyond nauseous... I am usually nauseated all the time but its minimal and I can live with it. Overall it sucks, but its nice to have a symptom to tell me all is normal with Sprout and that he/she is getting bigger and stronger.

Morning sickness usually occurs when HCG levels get to a certain point your hormones start kicking into high gear. Not everyone reacts to the hormones produced the same way so not every woman has morning sickness. After your HCG peaks at a certain level in pregnancy, it tends to decrease (slowly or quickly) and is usually around the end of the first trimester. Your body tends to learn to adapt to the hormone changes, and combined with the lowered HCG, many womens nausea subsides and they feel "normal" again. Not all women are the same... unfortunately I am one of the average girls who has morning sickness but I hope it disappears in time (unlike with Landon)

Sickness.... gagging.... miserable!

I kind of regret whining about not having any real symptoms... about 4/5 days ago nausea set in but it was very mild.... every day it has grown progressively worse. I haven't vomited from it yet but I have gotten VERY close. The only time I don't really feel nauseated anymore is when I'm sleeping. As soon as I get out of bed and start walking I am sick. It gets better when I eat but sadly NOTHING has sounded appetizing. I hate forcing myself to eat... and it's constant too. I HAVE to snack the WHOLE day or else I'm completely miserable.

On the plus side, it means Sprout is growing and doing well =) Our ultrasound is only a few days away now and I couldn't be more excited!! I can't wait to see Sprouts little heartbeat flickering away on the screen... I had a dream last night that it was TWINS and by week 9 I could already feel them moving.... weird! I don't know what I would do if I ever had twins... the idea of it is fun but the reality of it.......... not so much lol!

On the plus side, my mom received her magnet yesterday telling her about everything =D To the side here is a picture of what we sent her on the magnet... obviously it's not us in the picture, but I'm too lazy to arrange for us to have our own picture taken and send it to her. I thought it was perfect =) She seemed happy but I'm hoping it wasn't all in my head (LOL).

I can't wait for my ultrasound so I can have an OFFICIAL due date!! I will be honest though.... mostly I just want to know how far off I was in my prediction >.< I have a feeling it won't be more than a day or two.... but we will see!!! I can't wait to show the picture of my precious baby to everybody and announce it on facebook =) (juvenile, I know... but I'm excited!!)

He or She? Open to see!

So obviously I am WAAAAAY too early to have any concrete evidence of what we are for sure having, but I thought it would be fun to pass the time and take a couple tests and see what I am predicted!

So first off, this test is to be taken with a grain of salt... It's meant solely for entertainment purposes and only has a 50/50 chance of being correct. 

That being said, this is "IntelliGender". (Note: in the directions it says to wait until your 10th week of pregnancy or beyond to try it out, but on the box is says 6 weeks. I looked it up and people said they got the same results at 6 weeks as opposed to 10+ weeks... so whatever!)

It comes with a little cup to pee in, a syringe and a little plastic container with some chemicals in it. You pee in the cup, take the syringe and suck up the amount of pee needed, then inject the urine into the plastic container. After doing so, you swirl the "ingredients" for about 10 seconds, then place it on a flat surface for five minutes. You don't pick it up/touch the test in those five minutes, and you read the results without holding them up to the light. What you see is what you get essentially.... silliness perhaps, but still fun!

So after doing so and waiting out my five minutes, this is the result I got:

So, long story short, intelliGender predicts we are having another boy! I don't think there's any debate on whether that color is yellow or green (lol!)

Another baby-predictor that a ton of people use is called the "chinese gender calendar". It predicts what you will have based on your age and when you conceived. This method as well predicts we will have a little boy........ HOWEVER, that being said, with Landon it predicted we would have a girl.... so you never know! =D

I am all but 100% sure on what we are having, but I am going to be reserving my opinion for a later date! ^_~

What do you think?? Is Sprout going to be another boy or our first girl?

Boobies and Baby Butts!

So tonight I finally got the time I wanted to sit down and do some much-needed research. I had been wanting to do this research for quite some time... as I stated before I want two things out of this new baby: I want to pseudo-cloth diaper, and I was to breastfeed for REAL this time.

The cloth diapering has been one constant headache since I started looking into it a good 6-ish months ago when we started trying to conceive. Tonight I sat down and put my all into the research and have decided on a brand to try and picked out a few types of this one brand. I am so excited to finally have some sort of direction! Even if this brand turns out to be crappy and/or doesn't work for Sprout very well, I am thankful for the amount of knowledge I have accumulated the last few hours =D

These are bumGenius 4.0 cloth diapers. There are SEVERAL different designs and colors to them, but these are the two "styles": Snap buttons and Hook and Loop (aka, Velcro!) Each have their own pro's and cons, but these diapers are some of the only ones that made ANY real sense to me practically and financially. A) you can use them from birth until potty training; B) they have received some of the best reviews in terms of durability, absorbency, and overall bang-for-your-buck; C) they are SO SIMPLE to use... hands-down one of the easiest to adjust to your baby. I am so thrilled with this find!! I cannot wait to see if Sprout is a boy or girl and then order colors accordingly!

Now for breastfeeding... with Landon, it didn't work so well. Firstly, I was distracted by several factors in home life as well as the first few days in the hospital. The nurses were of no help and while I signed up for a lactation consultant to call me, I never received anything from said person(s). It was rough. I was new to motherhood and everything seemed so foreign and overwhelming. While the actual act of breastfeeding didn't last as long as I had hoped, I did pump for quite some time for him. I got sick several times and lost milk supply, and while my pump was a nice pump for what I paid for it, it did NOTHING to help me build up my supply and create a "pleasant" experience.

THIS TIME AROUND, I am determined to not only make the act of breastfeeding my baby work, I have ordered a new pump that has gotten amazing reviews and will be taking a class (or two... or more if they offer them!) on breastfeeding so I can hopefully be ready to meet my child's needs and do this properly this time! We are also living in our own home now and I can have the privacy/relaxation I need to get this breastfeeding thing down! If I get sick during breastfeeding, not only will I (hopefully) have my child to help me build my supply back up, but this pump is guaranteed to increase milk production (pictured to the left: Ameda Purely Yours Breast Pump - Carry All). I am certain this time around we will make breastfeeding work !!!!

I am excited to make it to September/October and get my little Sprout here in my arms to love and nurture!

Symptoms and cravings

I forgot in my other posts to add these bits of info in.... not that it really matters but I will put them on here for anybody interested! So far I have been craving protein. Meat, nuts, eggs, you name it. Especially meat... sounds amazing. I love apples, oranges, bananas and strawberries. Most veggies are good too. Sour things are a MUST as sell. I like juice but it gets too sweet and unsettles my stomach so I have to water it down and limit it to one glass a day. Even if I am repulsed by it, I HAVE to drink water all day. Nothing else sits well in my stomach and if I go too long without drinking water I feel dehydrated and gross. Things that repulse me are chocolate, most candy really, and fast food... not all fast food. Once in a while Im ok with it but overall it sounds gross(which is great for me lol) What I want day-by-day changes but it always falls under the categories listed above. As far as symptoms go, they are very mild most of the time. Exhaustion sets in and I want to call it a day by around 5 if not sooner but Im usually able to push through it. During the morning whdn I first wake up and before Ive eaten anything I am nauseous... Ive learned to snack every hour or two and that pretty much keeps any sickness at bay. I have sore boobies but not usually retardedly painful like they started off being. My last unpleasant symptom is mucus.... I am so full of mucus all the time... My head, my sinus's, my throat... always with the mucus. Its not that big of a deal, I just hate not being able to take a mucinex or anything for it. The doctor said it could last all pregnancy too.... joy.... lol! Other than that, I have mild cramping ocassionally but thats pretty much stopped... and Im feeling good overall!

6 weeks

Happy Superbowl Sunday! (I don't even know what teams are playing this year... *sigh*)

Today, Sprout is the size of a Lentil or a Sweet Pea... to understand that in basic length, it's about 1/4". It's amazing to think about how fast little ones grow in the course of a few weeks. Two weeks ago Sprout was only the size of a poppy seed. So tiny! It's pretty incredible to think about.

This past week I had my first OB appointment. The doctor didn't do too much (obviously, I am still so early... just some blood work to confirm) although he went by my last period and said I was 7 weeks and some odd days then offered to do an ultrasound. I told him I was pretty sure I was much earlier than 7 weeks and was wanting and ultrasound, but didn't want to NOT see anything. Even though I know it's normal to NOT see anything at 5-ish weeks, I would still worry until my next one. So we agreed that two weeks from Wednesday I would come back specifically for an ultrasound. I am so excited!! That's 10 days from now!! According to my estimated due date, I would be around 7 weeks and 3 days. We should definitely see something by then.

Alex decided to go ahead and tell his family after my appointment because he was too excited to contain such great news. I believe they are all happy (lol!!) and so I decided to go ahead and tell my mom as well. (I also need to tell my brother Ben since he lives with us.... lol!) I sent my mom a picture magnet with four pairs of shoes on it, side by side, and at the bottom it says "We are expanding by two feet. Construction Deadline September 2012." So that should get to her by Valentines days... let's hope she's happy too!