Baby

As usual I'm a bit behind on blogging. I've got quite a lot to say, so.....enjoy.

Let's see about 3 1/2 weeks ago I had my first unofficial prenatal appointment. I had been experiencing a lot of unusual stomach pain and I was concerned so I made an appointment. My doctor was sure the baby was fine, but he decided to do an ultrasound just to check. Sure enough baby was just fine. Then he checked my gall bladder which was not so fine. He sent me to get it checked out a little closer with a different ultrasound. The day was miserable. I had to have some blood work ran, which doesn't usually bother me, but I had been fasting all day for the digestive ultrasound, on top of being incredibly nauseous and exhausted from tossing and turning all night with pain. As it turned out all the high levels of hormones from pregnancy were causing my gall bladder to build up "sludge" (apparently that's a real medical term...very scientific right?!). The build up in sludge was slowing down my gall bladder's functions and thus causing some pretty nasty pain. My doctor prescribed me some medication to take daily before I eat and I've been feeling a lot better....from the pain.

About a week and a half after that appointment I had my first official prenatal appointment. It was pretty routine until the doctor started to measure things and then said, "Hmmmm...your uterus feels larger than it should." As there was another doctor there doing some sort of rotation or something he asked him to check as well (there's nothing like being the object lesson, mercy). He agreed my uterus measured much larger than 10 weeks. Then my doctor said, "Maybe it's twins." HOLY CRAP! I said no no no, and I reminded him that he had done an ultrasound earlier and there was only one baby, and while I'm not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV, I was pretty sure they don't spontaneously multiply. He said, "Sometimes they hide." HOLY CRAP!!! So they rolled in the ultrasound machine to check. Nothing short of relief was felt when the doctor said, "Ah, only one baby." One sweet, beautiful and seemingly perfect baby. I saw teeny arms and legs kicking and moving. And a tiny heart, that captured mine instantly, was beating strong. What a miracle. The measurements from the first early ultrasound and this ultrasound were a little inconsistent. Combining that with the other measurement my doctor gave me a due date of October. He said we'll see how things grow and measure and then maybe we can narrow it down a little better.

Thus far this pregnancy has been unlike any of my others. How you can be pregnant 4 times and have each one of them different I'll never know. I've been very tired, which is to be expected of course and pretty consistent with the other 3. I've been far more sick this go around. I have the ever present urge to gag, which is lovely. That paired with moderate to extreme nausea everyday has made this first trimester less than pleasant. Jason has been wonderful through it all. And the boys and I have learned several new card games for days when I don't feel well enough to be up and moving. In fact Jase may be the best 4 year old Uno player in the world!

I know this too will pass and pretty soon I'll be feeling well and food will have never tasted better. I cannot wait for that part!
Here are two of the pictures from my second ultrasound. See what I mean, utterly beautiful!

You can made out the little face in this one. Two eyes, a nose and a tiny mouth.