Wednesday, May 23, 2012

24 weeks

Today was a big day!  Not only did I deliver my first babies, but we also had our 24 week appointment.

In terms of the appointment, Dr. Johnson says baby boy is doing wonderful!  His heart rate is in the 140s and uterine measurements were right where they should be!  Way to go baby!  The only unfortunate part of this appointment is that I found out I have gained 10 lbs in the last month!  In not gonna lie, I panicked a little bit when I found that out.  Apparently it is not a problem since I only gained 4 lbs in the first 5 months of the pregnancy.... but still, makes me a bit nervous.  Looks like I will be trying to cut out the junk food more.  No more cheetos for this girl (quite sad about this, as I have quite enjoyed these as an afternoon snack over the past week or so).  Anyway, glad to hear baby is growing well and things are right on track.

In terms of life outside of baby brain, I am on my first week on by obstetrics and gynecology rotation.  Today I delivered my first baby, twins actually, by C-section.  It was incredible!  I actually considered crying for a second, before I regained composure and realized that was off-limits, or they would for sure see that the pregnancy hormones were getting to me.  I now realize why ob-gyn's love their jobs.  Bringing life into this world is miraculous, and being a part of it was a huge honor! I can't wait for the day we bring our own little miracle into the world!

Friday, May 4, 2012

20 Week Appointment

It's a Boy!

We had our 20 week appointment 2 weeks ago and decided to find out the sex of the baby.  I had originally not wanted to find out at all, thinking it would be much more fin to find out once the baby was born.  Derek has wanted to find out the entire time.  So the week before our 20 week ultrasound, I was starting to change my mind.  I had a significant "inkling" that the baby was a boy.  This was based on the fact that I was getting punched/kicked ALL THE TIME! Even to the point where I was waking up in the middle of the night with the baby kicking me.  I figured this was pretty significant for only being 19 weeks pregnant, so I guess I just assumed it was a boy.  I had already been slipping up a few times and saying "he" instead of "the baby" or "it".  So I decided it was time to find out for sure.  Again, my original thought was that we should have the ultrasound tech put the sex of the baby in an envelope that we would take to the bakery or something to make a cake or dessert in the color pink or blue and have everyone over so that we would all find out together.   Of course, the day of the ultrasound, I changed my mind yet again.  Knowing that I would not be able to pull my eyes away from the screen to not find out, I decided we might as well know right awake as soon as the ultrasound tech knew.  Derek was excited about this, as I had finally agreed with his original thought of wanting to find out! As an aside, I must say Derek was very understanding throughout this whole ordeal and said that even though he wanted to know, he would completely go with whatever I wanted to do, even it if meant not finding out the sex of the baby until it was born.  I really appreciated him being so flexible and understanding.  I really am quite the lucky lady!

Anyway, so we were sitting in the ultrasound room, watching the absolutely incredible technology that lets us see our baby developing, both enjoying seeing that absolutely EVERYTHING was perfect.  No cleft lip, no spina bifida, brain development right on track, normal heart without problems,  arms and legs developed correctly with all fingers and toes.... PERFECT.  Everything I wanted to see was showing up right as it was supposed to be.  So then we get to finding out the sex and she goes down by the legs and pauses briefly.... there it was, very clearly on the screen.... it was without a doubt a baby BOY!  Derek got a huge smile on his face and I started to cry.  Both of us very excited that we would be having a boy.  While neither of us had a preference for a girl or boy, I think there has always been a thought that it is so nice for families to have a big brother around.  Lucky for Derek, he experienced that with Russ, but I never had a big brother and always wished that I had so I was glad that the rest out or kids would have a big brother to look up to.  Also, I think that there is always a secret hope in the back of every man's mind that his first child will be a boy, who he can take fishing and teach to play baseball and hockey and all of the fun boy bonding things.  So needless to say, we were both very excited!  It was incredible to see our baby develop right on the screen.

The other thing that I found to be funny was that I had been saying the baby kept moving around all the time.  I don't think that Derek really understood what I meant by that, or maybe he thought I was bluffing and just being dramatic.  So I was happy to prove to him that I was serious when the baby kept moving during the ultrasound.  We were all laughing so hard because the ultrasound tech was trying to get certain measurements and she would get so close to getting the measurement and then the baby would move around.  She was really having a hard time getting him to stay in one place!  She even called him a "little monkey" at one point!  Again, I was glad to finally show Derek that he is moving around and kicking me ALL THE TIME! haha.  Not that I mind.  I quite enjoy getting to feel him moving around as long as its not the big kicks that hurt.

So on to life surrounding the ultrasound in the past two weeks since we found out we are having a boy.  Since he is kicking and moving around a lot, I have become ultra aware of the fact that there is a little life inside of me who can now hear my heart beating and hear us talking or the music playing in the car.  I have noticed that he becomes more active with music and that his heart rate goes up anytime I start talking.  It has been really fun!  I am thinking I should start reading my medical textbooks aloud so that I can educate him early on.... :-) Just kidding!  (but I really did think about it!  haha)  I now find myself talking to him occasionally when I feel him moving around.   Last friday I had a 3 hour exam as the final of my medicine rotation.  In the car on the way to the exam, he was moving around in there like crazy, so I found myself talking to him and telling him that he would have to help me out and be really good and not move around so much during the test so that I could concentrate.  I doubt that he understood me, but sure enough he was a little more calm during the exam, thank goodness.    Other times I find myself saying good morning or just telling him that yes, i can feel him moving around in there and I know he's in there.  I dunno, its silly, but fun at the same time!

We are very excited to see what life brings in the coming weeks and months.  Our windows are being replaced in 2 weeks and hopefully the carpet will be replaced soon after, so then we will start getting the nursery set up.  In the mean time, my mom and I continue to check the clearance at Gap and find fun little things for the baby.  It sure is fun getting to look around.  If I am not careful, he will have a full wardrobe before he is even born! :-)