We made it to week 20 this week. Pinhead is kinda wiggly, but still mostly a day baby. Nerdstar still hasn't gained any weight, although she has a little baby bump.
Next Friday is the ultrasound. We really can't wait for that. We're ready to know if it's a boy or a girl - and neither of us has the slightest inkling which it is.
Other than that it's still a boring pregnancy - knock wood!
I thinks it's awesome and strange and amazing that there's a little tiny person in Nerdstar's belly!! Feeling Pinhead move is just so cool.
The biggest news is that yesterday and today we've really been able to feel Pinhead moving around! It's so cool!! Nerdstar's only gained a pound and a half so far, and so I think that lets Pinhead be closer to the outside so we can feel the little movements! Now we're just afraid we're bugging it too much by rubbing the belly and trying to see just where it's at.
The next ob/gyn apt. is early Thursday morning. It should be another short and simple one, just checking the heartbeat again and making sure the blood tests results were all ok. We assume they would have already let us know if anything was wrong, but you never know with doctor's offices.
Due to the insurance company Nerdstar's with, the ultrasound has to be done at a radiology office and not the doc's office, so we'll schedule that Thursday - hopefully for a few days later. Then we'll know everything is in all the right places and if it's a boy or girl. I think we're both at about 55/45 preferring a girl.
We talk about names, and will get a little more serious about that once we know if it's a boy or girl. We talked tonight that once you realize you don't really have family names you like, or any literary names, it's kinda hard.
So far boys names are a little easier. We like Noah Ben - Ben was her grandfather's American name. We've also gotten to where we like Maxx Lee. We saw a real dude named Sgt. Max Fightmaster and thought it was the coolest name - right up there with Moxie Crimefighter. So, we started thinking Maxx would be cool - in case he looks more tough than Noah. And Lee is the middle name of everyone in my family except me.
For girls, it doesn't seem to be as easy. For years I've liked Sunshine Joy. But even I realize that's kinda cheesy. So I've been trying to figure out what goes with Joy, with Joy as either the first or middle name. Lily Joy is pretty, but also kinda delicate. Then we joked that with the girl we might have to wait and see the girl before we can pick a name. I said, "What if she comes out and we look at her and say Oh, Shit, It's a Bertha?" (See, there's a reason it's called 2 Bad Moms!)
Once the next apt. and the ultrasound is done I'll be pretty much done worrying until we get to labor and delivery time! I'm still so extremely thankful Nerdstar's had the easiest pregnancy ever so far.
We had the second appointment with the ob/gyn this morning. It was short and boring. We got to hear Pinhead's heartbeat and they took some blood. I was pretty sure it would be this way. It's a few more weeks until we can find out the sex of the baby, so I figured there wasn't much to check this time.
Things are still going really well for Nerdstar. She might have gained a pound or two. She's got a tiny little belly. We just take life easy these days and she tries to eat really well. We still talk to Pinhead every night!
We decided to be silly at get a heartbeat monitor for Pinhead. I told Nerdstar if I could have a webcam in there and watch Pinhead all the time I totally would!
Now that I'm not a nervous wreck anymore, (I worry but not even a fraction as much) I find that I'm already much more content with life. It's a very odd feeling for me. I can only imagine how much better it will all feel/be a few months from now.
Today starts week 11 of Nerdstar's pregnancy. Today was also our first appointment with the ob/gyn office. It's a pretty big practice, six or seven ob's and an NP. I think the plan is to meet a different ob at each appointment so we can meet them all and see which we prefer, but also because you never know which one will be on call when the actual delivery happens. They seemed nice enough this morning.
The doc did another internal ultrasound. Pinhead had its head at an angle that made it hard to determine just how big it is, but the arms and legs are growing in the right places and the heartbeat was at a good rate. (143 I think.) We got a print out of the ultrasound, but not a cd copy. Oh well.
So far Nerdstar hasn't had any of the usual symptoms - no morning sickness or anything. I'm really glad it's been easy for her so far.
One thing that's kinda funny is telling people I'm going to have a baby - but I'm not pregnant. Mostly people at work are the ones I've told. I only see them a few days a month, and most of them knew about Nerdstar and I, but a couple I showed the ultrasound to today didn't. Heh.
Nerdstar isn't close enough to her coworkers to let them know the news until she starts showing. And she certainly isn't out to them. (Not that they'd care, she just isn't as social as I am.) So I joke with her how at least a few will think she's just another loose woman who became a single mom! Heh.
I'm finally starting to worry a lot less. There really isn't a way to express how much I worried the first month. It was terrible.
We're still talking to Pinhead every night. Nerdstar still does food updates. It's still a very well fed baby!
Now it's really just a matter of Pinhead growing. Nothing exciting will happen until week 21 or so when we'll get to learn the gender. That and the first kick are what I'm waiting for!!
Every night since we found out Pinhead existed, we've put our hands on Nerdstar's belly one at a time and talked to Pinhead. Every night I say Hi, how glad we are it exists, and mostly to hang in there and not fall out and to keep growing! Nerdstar tends to do a food report every night - you know, what they ate each day and what items were new. I'm not sure there's any other baby that's been fed so many different things so early in it's existence.
The two things I'm looking forward to the most before the actual delivery is when the baby starts to kick and when we find out the gender. I think we're both at the point we don't care if it's a boy or girl. We've spent years joking around about having a "princess" daughter because neither of us has the first clue about how to do hair or anything else.
I know at 8 1/2 weeks we're not out of the woods of danger, but we're getting closer and I'm trying to worry less.
Wow. Because Nerdstar is on the older side for pregnancy, and because we went through the fertility place, we got to have our second sonogram today at 8 weeks instead of waiting until week 20 or so. This was one last check up before we have to find an ob/gyn and start seeing them.
Just under 3 weeks ago Pinhead wasn't even 5 mm, today it's at just over 19 mm, or 3/4 of an inch. The heartbeat was 163 bpm which is a little fast, but good. Everything looks fine.
Other than seeing Pinhead, which is amazing, I was also informed I've been miscalculating how far along Nerdstar is by a week, so we're at 8 wks 3 days today. Woohoo!! That's one less week I have to worry about everything under the sun.
So far Nerdstar is feeling fine. This week she started getting a lot more tired in the evenings. But other than that so far so good.
We also bought a little pregnancy journal thingy. Even though we're blogging a lot of this, it'll be cool to have something more tangible.
I've talked a little bit about this with a couple of people, thought I'd go ahead and share it here.
The worrying I'm doing over the baby is pretty much the same as the worrying I did over Nerdstar was she was deployed to Iraq. The worry is always in the back of my head, but sometimes it's worse than others. In both cases, at any given moment all could go horribly wrong - and there's not a damn thing I can do about it.
Two things are better now - it won't last nearly as long as the military deployment. And I get to at least have Nerdstar in sight most of the time.
