Here we are at nine weeks again. We were here two weeks ago, before the ultrasound tech decided baby was really only seven weeks. Oh well. Baby is still doing a good job of striping me of all energy and making me feel constantly nauseous. Just baby’s little way of making sure I don’t forget :) I’ll tell ya though, I don’t know how people handle this first trimester stuff with a houseful of kids. I’ve had roughly the same symptoms with each pregnancy, but they seem so different. When I was pregnant with Lex I was self-employed and was able to rest when I needed to and take care of myself. With Eve, Lex was still young and we were busy with the new house and changing jobs, but he still napped twice a day and we didn’t have any firm schedules. Now with preschool and swimming and playdates and two active kids, I can barely make it through the day… even though I nap with them every day! By lunch time and bedtime I am a very cranky mommy. I hope the kids don’t remember these days well :) I tell them often that it takes a lot of energy to raise two kids and even more energy to grow a baby inside and I’m just pretty low on energy. They are sweet and seem to understand, but I still feel bad for being so tired! We had a playdate today with five kids (my two plus three others) and by the time everyone left at 5pm I was whipped! Sigh. How do people do this with their fourth and fifth pregnancies?!?

I got a call from the midwife this afternoon at about quarter to five. I was so happy because I meant to call her and forgot all day! Anyway, she said the ultrasound from this week showed a 7wk baby, not a 9wk baby and she adjusted my due date to November 9th. A birthday baby!?! I think this date is more accurate based on the late positive test result and “delayed” morning sickness. Based on this new number the morning sickness actually came a bit earlier with this pregnancy and we announced the pregnancy VERY early! Eeek! I’ve already started seeing some weight gain (which is scary after 2yrs of WW!) and I’m a little bummed that I probably have even longer than I’d expected to deal with the morning sickness. Maybe it won’t last the whole 12 weeks. One can hope, right? I keep reminding myself that this is the final pregnancy so I need to enjoy, or at least respect, the whole thing. No complaining! (repeat as needed) For now I take Goldfish to bed with me and the kids get a kick out of sharing a snack with me at 6am as we all head downstairs. The weight gain will be what it will be and I’m going to have another beautiful baby!!! A birthday baby! :)

7 week ultrasound

We got a sneak peek at baby yesterday at an early ultrasound. The midwife isn’t confident on my due date (like the date matters anyway!) so she sent us in for an early peek. The appointment didn’t quite go as planned. I scheduled it for 5:30pm so Alan and the kids could all come. The midwife said to stop at the lab first for some blood work. I assumed I could do a quick blood draw with the kids around, so I didn’t ask Alan to get there early for that. The blood draw went fine (Eve even picked out a sticker for me since I did such a good job!) but then the nurse said she needed a urine sample! Eek. That was a bit trickier with both kids in tow. They were fascinated by what I was doing and wanted to help, Eve almost pulled the emergency call string which freaked Lex out, and the whole place was dimly lit with no counter space. The whole process took far too long and talk about no privacy! Then we went up to radiology. While we waited Lex read the following sign to Eve. “If you are pregnant or might be pregnant please alert the technologist.” Alan and I were so impressed with the reading that it wasn’t until hours later we realized the humor in the sign. And error. Technologist?? Anyway, we went into the room and the first thing the ultrasound tech says is, “So, you have a nice full bladder, right?” Umm… no!!! He grumbled when I told him the lab tech had me do a urine sample. Apparently a full bladder “provides a nice clear window into the uterus.” He couldn’t see much through my empty bladder so we did an internal ultrasound instead. Yuck! Once again the kids probably saw more than they should have. Or maybe not, they were pretty distracted with all the stuff in the room to look at. The fun part was when we all got to see the little flickering heart beat! (though if you ask Lex he’ll probably tell you the fun part was all the books they had in the room) The technician isn’t allowed to “read” the ultrasound so I have to wait for a radiologist to read it and then send the files over to the midwives. He said by Friday they should have the files, so I’ll call on Friday to see if they are going to change the due date. We had an early ultrasound with Eve (though not quite as early) because Lex was 8 days late and they stuck with the original due date and she ended up being 6 days late anyway, sooo…. I’m expecting a November baby regardless of what date they choose :)

I showed this picture to a friend this morning. She is a family doctor. I said I know it’s just a little dot, but I want to show you. She grinned and said, “what a nice embryonic sac you have!” I think that will be my new ultrasound picture response. I love it! :)