8 Weeks Pregnant

Well, we made it to 8 weeks!  Baby is the size of a raspberry.  I feel bloated, exhausted, and nauseous!  It's a bit different than when I was pregnant with Gabe.  I remember the nausea, mostly at night, but this time it is allllllll the time!  I finally found something that has been helping about 90% - acupressure on the inside of my wrists.  I try to nap as much as possible and bedtime has been officially moved to 8:30pm.  I sure hope the second trimester comes with renewed energy and no nausea!!  Here's to hoping and a speedy 4 weeks to come!

We decided to announce our pregnancy right around Mother's Day.  I'm brainstorming some ideas but nothing is firm yet.  I'd like to have Gabe involved, so I've been on Pinterest, hunting for ideas.

Things have been busy with the semester wrapping up way too quickly at work, and also with our last bedroom renovations at home.  We stripped the wood paneling and built-in bunk beds, insulated and sheetrocked the walls, laid new hardwood flooring, installed a ceiling fan, and painted.  (And when I say "we," I really mean Craig, though I helped with demo and painting.)  We still have some trim painting to go, but it truly is transformed.  Gabe is gearing up for moving in later this year!!  "This is MY room!"

Why Hello, Baby!!

We went in for our 1st ultrasound on March 14th, at 5 weeks & 6 days.  Baby LaTour was 3.6 millimeters long, with a heart rate of 112 bpm.  S/he is measuring right on time for a due date of November 8th.  It was really exciting because we got to see the little heartbeat flickering in real time!! 

HCG Take 3!

So after announcing the pregnancy to Craig, I headed to the lab for yet another HCG level.  my doc wanted to confirm it was over 2500 before scheduling an early ultrasound.  This baby is obviously an overachiever because it turned out to be 5069!!

We now have an ultrasound scheduled for Wednesday the 14th.  I'm so excited to see the baby!  (Though I know s/he will be less than half an inch long so there's not much to see.  Hopefully, we'll at least hear a heartbeat!)

On the pregnancy symptom side of things, my sense of smell is ridiculously acute.  Coffee and chicken soup smell disgusting, I'm sorry to report.  And I had a pretty bad case of nausea yesterday.  Sleep is still elusive for all 3 of us, but hopefully Daylight Savings will help with that.  I hate the time change because it means getting up in the dark again, but hopefully spring will show up sometime soon!

The other thing that has been a pain, literally, is the restless leg syndrome.  I believe I had this when I was pregnant with Gabe too.  It makes sleeping even more difficult, unfortunately.

Gabriel is still pretty unaware that he's getting a sibling.  We did broach the subject of needing to give his crib to the baby to use (now that we converted it into a toddler bed, haha!).  He seems ok with that and getting a full-size bed of his own.  He still asks for a "real crying baby" occasionally.  We'll see if he really likes that when baby arrives!!

The Announcement

We had a snow day on March 7th, so I decided to take the opportunity to tell Craig then instead of waiting 24 more hours till our anniversary.  Patience is obviously NOT my virtue, haha!

World's Best Brother

So this is the shirt I found for Gabe to announce the baby to Craig on Thursday!  Now... to hope my husband's powers of observation are working that morning, haha!!

I also found a card that starts with "You'd better sit down for this..."  I figure I will give him my anniversary card first, then have Gabe give him the baby announcement card (Craig will think it's just an anniversary card from him), and then, if necessary, have Gabe break out the Welcome New Baby board book for Craig to read to him.  A one, two, THREE punch, haha!

I spoke with the nurse again today.  The doc wants one more HCG level to be above 2500 before we do the ultrasound, so I am heading to the lab again on Wednesday.  Then we'll get an ultrasound the following week!!  I'm so excited to see the baby! 

On the health front, I feel good but I have a little bit of annoying heartburn (have to leave the jalapenos alone...) & am still tired.  My sense of smell seems super potent like it was with Gabe, so Craig's coffee turns my stomach a little and I haven't been super hungry at night (start of my evening "morning" sickness again? I hope not!).  I also noticed that my skin always look fabulous when I'm pregnant!!  (Totally NOT complaining!)

I'm keeping busy so I can keep this secret a few days more by working on a baby registry for what we'll need for baby #2.  I am shaking my head at all the stuff we got for Gabe that we found out was not essential -- handy but not 100% mandatory.  (First time moms see EVERYTHING as necessary, haha!)  Good thing we still have almost everything we need.  There are definitely a few items I want to get again.  I'm also looking at add-on platform options for converting our stroller into a double with a seat/stand for Gabe -- I just don't think we'll use a traditional double stroller because Gabe is so into walling on his own (and pushing things like grocery carts!).  Window shopping is the cure for keeping secrets and having anxiety about withholding information, haha!!

HCG Take 2

Well, hello 528!!  

I was so excited to learn that my HCG level had more than doubled in 2 days!  That means good things, and I'm much less anxious about this pregnancy.  Not anxious-less (that is totally not a word), but getting closer to feeling what's probably the "normal" level of nervousness for an early pregnancy.

Next steps are an early viability/dating ultrasound around mid-March, +/- another HCG level to check it's above 15,000.  I'm waiting to hear back from the nurse on that, but in the meantime we scheduled the regular OB appointments for the next month or so.  I have to go to a "teaching session" -- which I understand to be mostly paperwork and "do you remember the do's & don't's for pregnancy."  

I'm heading out to the mall this weekend to find a big brother shirt for Gabriel and a card for us to sign for Craig for our anniversary.  My plan is, on our 10th anniversary March 8th, to sign the card from the 3 of us (me, Gabe, & baby due Nov 2018) and put Gabe in the big bro shirt to see how long it takes Craig to notice, haha!!