My Sincerest Apologies

I have neglected this blog with real news for too long. But as you've probably gathered from my last three posts, I'm pregnant! And, in fact, I would even go so far as to say I'm expecting a baby. Now that I can look at the first trimester in hindsight, I must say it's been a pretty fun time so far.

Remember this post? Yeah, let's just say I ovulated a few days later and I'm now 14w1d pregnant with our (probably) firstborn. I fully credit my healthy attitude with my relatively early ovulation (CD24!!!) and conception.

As you also probably gathered from the last three posts, we opted to tell our immediate families fairly soon. I was almost five weeks pregnant on Mother's Day when I grunted the news to my siblings on an outing to a Cubs game. Erich chided me for making it sound like I had a terminal illness. Truly, I didn't try too hard to be excited at that point. That's the curse of two miscarriages. And all I felt I had at that point was a handful of positive tests, a good initial hCG level, and a diagnosis of low progesterone (11.2 at about 4.5 weeks).

Luckily, I've found it doesn't take immaculately positive thoughts at all times to make a baby thrive. We were blessed to see and hear the heartbeat at 7w1d. Actually, based on my ovulation it should have measured 7w3d, but I didn't even let this discrepancy bother me. For long. Really, assurances are few and far between in the first tri when you've had two missed miscarriages. I knew our baby was fine at seven weeks, but how could I be sure at nine weeks that nothing had gone wrong? I just had to trust my continuing symptoms and keep going.

11w finally rolled around: my second appointment. I heard that brilliant heartbeat and was super thrilled. We could go ahead and tell the world! But I couldn't shake that feeling that we thought we were in the clear at 11.5w in my first pregnancy and told the world, only to have to untell a few days later. Yes, we hadn't heard the heartbeat in two weeks in that case, but I just couldn't be comfortable with telling a wide circle of people this time before we were in the safety of the second trimester.

And I hit the second trimester this past Saturday. I'm getting bigger, but I've been feeling down about my body. My limbs, butt and face seem to be getting as big as my belly, and I just haven't been feeling really pregnant. We'd been finding it easy enough to wait to tell everyone, so I was almost leaning toward waiting to tell more people till after the third appointment at 15w.

But our little baby is an overachiever and I'm really proud of him/her. You see, I've been cursed this week with the yeastie beastie, which took me to the doctor yesterday. The brilliantly lovely CNP at the office, who I hadn't met yet, checked for the heartbeat. She warned me that the only functioning doppler they had was for later pregnancy, so I shouldn't be alarmed if she couldn't find it. No worries, though! She found it within thirty seconds, thumping away. I am really, really, for serious in the second trimester. This gut I'm developing and this fullness in my lower abdomen is from an actual, living, growing baby.

So now Erich and I are finding it pretty easy to be thoroughly excited. We're starting to accept the reality that we need to start getting our new house ready for a baby, due around January 13. And now I know that my appointment a week from today will be icing on the cake! I think I can stop being nervous every time I go to that office! We're having a baby!