I’m in awe, and in love

On Friday, at nearly 12 weeks, we had our second ultrasound. Everything is going great so far. All of my results are normal and healthy. We get the final results of the NT scan screening in 2 weeks, but the ultrasound portion looked good, and I’m not really worried. Feels great to say that, by the way. Pregnancy and me are really getting along. I am just so thrilled and content that many of my usual anxieties and sadness have drifted away. It’s wonderful!

We will be delivering at Columbia Presbyterian, and they invited me to do a research study on first time moms. They are trying to find out what signs during pregnancy may be used to predict pre-term labor risk in women with no pregnancy history. As part of it, we will get 3D images at 12, 20, and 28 weeks.

We had the first ones on Friday. It was magical watching the little one move around. It kept straightening its back and nodding its head with gusto, causing it to bounce off my uterus like it was a trampoline!

A few times she caught a pic of the fetus mid-bounce, with its back straighter, and measured the crown-to-rump length at 5.54 cm (2.18 in). When the little one was more curled up, it measured 5.3 cm (2.08 in). Either way, it’s right on track. It’s amazing to think it was just 1 cm only 4 weeks ago!

I will try to share more of the pics soon, but want to share this one now. It’s my favorite picture from the day:

After looking at that little round head, those little arms, the thick belly and those chunky thighs, I’ve fallen even more in love with our baby-to-be!

Going in for our first 3D ultrasound today!

So excited to see the little one in 3D! We also have our nuchal translucency screening, which is another ultrasound. Should be an exciting afternoon!

Starting to show!

On Friday I groggily got up and threw on a loose fitting dress, without really checking to see if I was covering the small belly pooch I’d noticed earlier in the week. Later when I was at work where we have a longer mirror in the bathroom, I looked at myself from the side and was surprised – I felt like, wow, I’m starting to look pregnant enough that people may wonder!

I think I got my first questioning looks from others, like from a pregnant coworker and a guy on the train who made sure to let me have the seat that opened up. I am really surprised because I’m not a small girl and I figured it would take a while to show. I was bracing myself for being in the “fat or pregnant?” stage for a while. With the pregnancy hormones some days I am more bloated than others, so whether I look more pregnant or just larger may vary from day to day I guess. But Friday was definitely more on the pregnant side!

Here’s a pic I took at the office during the day:

I had also been having cramps that felt almost like a period for the first time in weeks, so I read a bit on that and learned that’s its common for the uterus to come out above the pelvic bone around now. Plus my uterus was very tilted and around now they say it’s often righted itself, which I suspect is more “got so big the intestines couldn’t fit on either side, so now there’s no difference” than “flipped to the other side of the intestines.”

So the guides say the uterus comes out from behind the pubic bone at around 12 weeks and I’m not quite 11, but with the cramps and the starting to show I thought maybe its already out.

Wanting to validate my hypothesis, I read up on feeling the uterus. I tried to feel my uterus and fundal height, which is the distance from the pubic bone to the top of the uterus, and it seems to be around 14 or 15 cm already! Definitely out of hiding. I read that if the length is equal to your week +/- 4 then it’s normal, and larger girls may get a larger measurement because of tummy fat.

So it seems like all this is normal enough but I feel so surprised!

I’m excited but not sure I’m ready, I thought it’d be my secret at the office and in public for a few more weeks!

About 1/4 of the way done…

Today I am 10 weeks and 1 day pregnant. On the one hand I can’t believe I’m 10 weeks already, and on the other I can’t believe there are 30 left to go!

Time usually passes so fast but with such a focus on the little bundle coming in January, it seems to have slowed down. I can’t imagine anything that could happen in the next 6 months that could be more exciting to me than the birth of our first child. Everything seems like just a way to pass the time.

Luckily, we have a few of those ways to pass the time…

Last week Husband got a job offer! We are so glad, as he was getting tired of the freelancing lifestyle, and we were getting tired of the inconsistent paychecks. He got a good job at a company that seems well respected – a friend who owns and runs a company in the same industry even told us this company is “the gold standard”!

And in a few weeks I’m taking off over a week from work, for the first time since I’ve been at this job. The first part is just me-time, and then for the second half of the week we are flying to my brother’s wedding. Should be beautiful and help the time go faster!

And there are just 10 days until our next ultrasound – in 4D!

Our little berry has a beating heart!

We saw our little berry and its beating heart and it was amazing!

At first it was suspenseful because it took a little while once he started the ultrasound. So I asked if things looked normal and he said he didn’t know, he hadn’t even found my uterus yet! Then he told us this happened once a few years ago and he was going to check a different area, further back, and sure enough, there it was.

He found the little one, and showed us its flickering heart on the screen. It was so wonderful!

That pic was pretty blurry, but he measured the Crown to Rump length at about a cm. Then he moved it around some more and found a better one, where we could see the head and heart and what looks like the little arms and legs!

While we were there they invited me to partake in a research study on first time moms. As part of it we will receive 4D ultrasounds at 12, 20, and 28 weeks! Just 3.5 weeks until our first 4D ultrasound! Can’t wait!