Mama's Intuition

I had my ultrasound on Monday, and it was so neat! The actual appointment took longer than I expected, around 45 minutes total. The ultrasound lady had all types of things she had to check for, like measurements of the skull, brain, femur, waist and various checks on the heart, face, and spine. She was very cool, and patiently explained what she was looking for to hubby and I. At one point she even took a picture of one of Kiwi's feet - when I asked her if she needed a measurement on that as well she said, "No, I'm just taking a picture of it for you 'cause it's cute..." How cool is that??

Everything checked out, and appeared normal. Kiwi weighs 12 ounces (my husband excitedly observed that she weighed the same as a can of beer - men and their observations), and was quite active during the appointment. It was so cute to see her little arms and hands and legs and feet moving about. At one point, we saw the perfect mug shot of her little face fill the screen, but the lady couldn't get a picture of it quick enough. Bummer!

My placenta did look a bit low, but didn't appear to be covering the cervix. I'll probably have to go back for another u/s, maybe in about 10 weeks. I see my OB next week and will get the details from him then.

My dream/intuition of Kiwi being a girl was right! I mentioned to the lady about the dream I had about her early in my first trimester, and she said that in her experience with patients and such, that those dreams are usually right about 80% of the time. I know lots of ladies who've either dreamed the correct gender or "just had a feeling" and were right. It's neat to think that somehow our bodies just know, to the extent that our minds are consciously aware too.

Here's the best pic I got of her yesterday, a cute little profile. Isn't my baby girl a cutie?!

Quick Update and Congrats!

Wonderful news today - Vee is pregnant! For those of you interested in popping by and providing your congrats, her blog is at http://sweetvee.blogspot.com/. I'm so excited for her - another successful IF to pregnancy story!

Some folks that could use some support are Beagle (pwp site) and Nina at http://stellaandben.typepad.com/stellaandben/.

As for me, things continue to progress nicely with the pregnancy. I feel movement pretty regularly now, and Kiwi seems to be most active at night after dinner. We have our 20-week ultrasound on Monday, and I CAN'T WAIT to find out whether Kiwi is a girl (like I've been thinking) or a boy (which will just crack me up to no end since I've been calling Kiwi a girl this whole time). I need to call the OB today to see if my triple marker blood test yielded any troubling results. This is where they test for down's, spina bifida, stuff like that. But apparently it has a high false positive test. It's been 2 weeks since I gave blood for the test so I'm thinking that no news is good news. But since this is such a key test I want to call them just to be sure...

I'm definitely showing and am amused at how nice people are to pregnant women. It just seems to lift them up and bring a smile to their faces, which in turn, makes me feel all good and happy inside :)

Once we find out the sex of the baby, all systems will be go in terms of nursery plans, etc. I've been holding out on buying anything until I find out, but that day is hopefully drawing near!

Hope everyone is doing well!

On Hiatus

I have decided to cease blogging. I'm sure this will only be temporary, but it just feels like the right thing to do right now. I will visit your blogs and comment when I can, but the frequency will likely decrease.

In the meantime, good luck to everyone who is still trying, and to all of you who are pregnant. I promise to post an update if anything significant occurs, or when I deliver Kiwi (whichever comes first)!

Snap, Crackle, Pop!

With the arrival of my 2nd trimester have come some interesting developments.

The Good News
Morning sickness seems to have disappeared, and I'm not as tired as I used to be. Whereas in my worst days, I would wake up, eat breakfast, and go back to bed - I don't need to do that anymore! I can still nap with the best of 'em when I get a chance, but this is more out of luxury than necessity.

The Other News
My skin continues to break out worse than when I was a teen. I seem to lack the pregnancy glow that everyone talks about. Oh well, you can't have it all. I am starting to show, and have converted to maternity clothes almost exclusively. I figure now that the news is out, I may as well be comfortable! And it's kind of neat to see just how nice people are to pregnant women. Enjoy it while it lasts, that's what I say. And finally, for the latest phenomenon...there must be a lot of movement and expansion going on in my pelvic area, because many times when I get up from a sitting or laying position, any number of bones either snap, crackle, or pop! It's like the sound of someone cracking their knuckles, except it's my hip, pelvic area, or lower spine. It doesn't hurt at all, but just throws me off my game a bit and makes me feel like I'm falling apart :) Hubby just laughs at it all, as he seems to do often these days.

On the work front, I took the plunge and approached a senior manager about my interest in joining his organization. It's the same overall organization I spoke about in my previous post, but he is the head honcho of it instead of the one position I was talking about that is a couple levels below him. He is actually very interested in talking to me further, and we have a meeting scheduled for next Monday. I'm excited! I need to work on my resume this week and make sure I'm ready for our conversation. That's what I'll try to do this weekend amidst the beautiful spring weather we're supposed to have. Wish me luck!

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Now that I'm pregnant, my life has taken on a different perspective when it comes to work. My husband and I are both professionals in the tech industry, and have carved out pretty successful careers for ourselves. I myself am a manager, and have worked my way up to this level over the last few years. I get a pretty good paycheck, and DH and I have created a comfortable life for ourselves in terms of our home and the other various items we can afford to splurge on based on a decent amount of disposable income.

I try to picture what it will be like when Kiwi arrives. Will I want to work anymore, or will I have the unending desire to be a stay-at-home Mom? Most of the Moms in our neighborhood stay home, and I have heard through the neighborhood grapevine (not that I partake much in that sort of thing) that the general view of these women towards working mothers is not a good one. Not that this would make or break the decision for me; it's just an interesting side note.

My husband is against me being a stay at home Mom, because he thinks I can do both. He tends to look at things more pragmatically when it comes to this issue. He figures we have both paid due diligence in our careers, so why should I give mine up and the lifestyle that we have come to enjoy as a result? Don't get me wrong, he is not a materialistic shmuck like this may make him appear...but I think that he has witnessed his own mother and my sisters doing the same thing and he and their kids have turned out fine. He has also witnessed stay at home moms that tend to lose a bit of themselves in their kids, and when it's time to go back to work - they don't have the confidence and/or tools needed to stick their toes back in the water.

Knowing myself as I do, I don't think I'm suited to be a stay-at-home mom indefinitely. Right now I am planning to take 5-6 months off for maternity leave, but I think I'll be ready to go back when the time is up. But who the heck knows how I'll feel until I'm really in that situation?

So the current dilemma is this - there are some job openings in my company that would allow me to go back to being an individual contributor (read this as a non-manager) and still take home the same pay. I would have less responsibility, and arguably a lower-pressure job as a result. I would also have more opportunity to work from home, allowing me flexibility with the baby's schedule. Although this would be somewhat of a "step down" in terms of my job level, I think this could be a good way to balance the demands of motherhood and career, but not try to be a superwoman amidst it all. I have a week to consider the job openings before I have to decide whether to apply or not. I happen to know one of the hiring managers, and she told me she'd start heavily weeding out candidates next week, and to let her know if I do apply so she can look for my application. So it seems like I might have a foot in the door for that particular opportunity.

My husband is out of town this week, so I'm trying to gather my thoughts so we can discuss more fully this weekend. I guess in the meantime I should update my resume since it won't hurt to have it updated even if I decide not to apply.

I wish I didn't have to worry about all this very adult type of crap, and could just kick back, enjoy my pregnancy, and dream about babies :) But that is not how the cookie crumbles, eh?

Meeting the OB/GYN

I had my first real appointment with the new OB today. He was really nice, and DH and I liked him a lot. I call this my first real appointment since the one last week was with that nursing student, and we didn't do anything in the way of exams.

Today, we discussed medical history, did a pap smear and breast exam, felt the uterus (it is growing right on track), and heard the heartbeat! It was different hearing the heartbeat on a doppler machine versus a transvaginal ultrasound, but still a wonderful sound to hear all the same. It strikes me as a bit passive/odd that this is all we need to do to verify the pregnancy is ok and on track. I would feel a lot better if I could see Kiwi every time, but alas, that is not the fate of how they treat a standard pregnancy...sigh.

Doc did send me home with a lab slip to schedule my 20 week u/s, and I did that when I got home. That'll be the one where we can hopefully confirm that my Kiwi is a girl :) It'll be funny if she turns out to be a he, because I've had it so firmly in my mind that she is in fact a girl...

So I am a happy camper. I'm out of the first trimester and have heard the heartbeat. I've started to tell more people at work. I told my boss last week, and this week I started to tell my team (I am a manager) and some of my peers. It's all good; they have been very supportive. There are a couple of people on my team who do not have children, and not knowing the reasons for this, I was really, really hoping that I was not hurting them when I told them of my news. IF really ups your sensitivity meter, but I think in a good way.

DH and I had lunch with that couple that's been going through IF treatments. They both have IF issues, but she has endometriosis on top of it all. I really never knew much about this condition, but it sounds like it really sucks. Essentially it's uterine-like tissue that can grow outside of your uterus, like in your fallopian tubes and even into your organs and brain. It's a huge cause for IF. So she's about to start on her first IVF cycle in a few weeks, and is also coupling it with acupuncture treatments. It turns out we've been going to the same fertility office, so it was interesting to compare notes about the type of treatment (both good and bad) that both of us received there. I really feel for them and wish them the best.

I think I'm starting to turn the corner into the "feel good" trimester. I'm not as tired as I used to be, and don't usually need to nap during the day anymore. I still have queasiness, and fought some off this morning with my standard piece of ginger candy. What's killing me is my heightened gag reflex when I brush my teeth. That's been with my for some time, and last weekend I actually vomited from it. Ugh. Needless to say, I am a bit gun-shy now when I brush, not wanting to get to that point of surprise pukage. Still have heartburn sometimes, and let me tell you -either I am starting to show, or I have a hell of a constant bloat going on. My stomach protrudes now, and I'm wearing the kind of maternity pants that are good for the early stages of pregnancy - the ones without the big pouch. Man, do I love those pants! There is so much give and stretch...I could wear these suckers even when I'm not pregnant! Hah! My face is finally starting to clear up, as I've had pimples constantly since becoming pregnant like I haven't had since I was a teen - and even worse than then! That one has really sucked, because I generally had a pretty clear complexion pre-pregnancy, with a few pimples that would come the week before my period. Maybe that "glow" will come that everyone talks about :)

Well since it is lunchtime and I don't have any meetings for an hour, I'm going to go lie down. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Better Than Nothing

Well I went to the new ob/gyn last Friday, and met with a nursing student. Ugh. It's not like I'm not supportive of nursing students and the profession in general, what with the big nursing shortage. But I was looking forward to meeting with the physician's assistant at the very least, so I wouldn't be met with a blank stare to some of my questions (...Nuchal translucency screening? That must be really new - I've never heard of it!) So there we went, filling out paperwork, she gave me a printout of my pregnancy dates, and key dates that I would have certain tests done. Fine. But when we got to the questions stage, she really wasn't too helpful. So I left the appointment feeling a bit unsatisfied, and stopped at the lab to give many tubes of blood for the tests they needed to run.

The nursing student did make another appointment for me with the actual doctor, and I'll be seeing him this Friday. She thinks he may do another u/s since I got pregnant via DIUI. I hope so, it will be good to see Kiwi again just to make sure everything is ok. I asked her if I should wait for this appointment before announcing the news to my boss, etc., and she didn't think that was necessary. As long as I have seen the baby and heard the heartbeat in the past, that seemed to be the key. So I told my boss the news last week, and she was very excited, etc.

So I guess that news is better than nothing, huh?

In other PG-related news, I bought a pretty journal yesterday with a green cover with flowers and butterflies on it. This is going to be my journal to Kiwi during my pregnancy. I wrote in it today for the first time, and it was neat to be "talking" to her in this way, and connecting with her. I want to document what I went through, the thoughts that were swirling in my head, and other general stuff so I can give it to her when she is old enough to understand it all. I think it'll be pretty neat.

DH and I were in the mall yesterday, and I allowed myself to go into the P0ttery B@rn B@by store. It was very cool. Everything was so precious, and I got to check out some of the cribs I've been eyeing. The lady at the store was very sweet and helpful, and being surrounded by all the pastel blues and pinks...I felt like everything was going to be ok.

Better get back to work now - took a little break since it's been awhile since my last post. Hope everyone is well.