Yesterday, Mark, Nugget and I had our first visit with the doctor. It was a moment I was equal parts excited and nervous as heck about. Is there really a baby in there? Is it's heart beating? Good gracious, could there be TWO in there?!?! We were immediately reassured as soon as this image came up on the ultrasound screen.
Yep, that's my little Nugget! Growing strong and healthy. You can see the head to the left, and a small arm bud sticking out at the bottom. We also got to hear the heartbeat, which sounded perfectly healthy and fast and probably the coolest sound I ever heard.
My wonderful husband kept his stoic calm while the doctor was in the office, but as soon as she left I got a big, huge kiss, so I guess he was happy!
Although we had some previous ideas on how to tell our parents, that night I ruined them by being unable to wait a single second more to spill the beans. So I called my parents first, and then we hopped in the car and drove over to tell Mark's parents. I'd already kept this a secret for 3 weeks or so, how could I wait any longer to tell them!? So far, everyone seems really happy and excited, and just like I thought, it's helping me feel more excited too.
At least, I would feel more excited if I didn't feel so SICK. My morning sickness started about a week and a half ago, when I was at about 6 1/2 weeks. And oh boy, is it fun. I've loaded up on bland food, ginger ale, granola bars, gatorade, water, everything I can think of to make sure I'm keeping food down and staying hydrated. Doing ok so far, but feeling nauseous 24/7 is not my idea of a good time!
We have a few major decisions ahead of us, namely, what hospital do we want to have the baby at, and what screening tests do we want to have. I've mentioned some of my fears on previous posts and now that I have the choice, I'm really not sure if I want to go through the screenings and any required subsequent testing. There's definitely pros and cons to each side. Mark told me something though that has definitely made me feel better-"Everything is right until someone tells us it's not anymore." When I start to worry or feel afraid, repeating that to myself definitely helps take my mind away from the what if's, back to what IS. And what IS is that I have an awesome little human growing happily away inside of me, and it's going to be the best darn baby there ever was!!
My official due date is July 3, 2013, and we'll be able to find out the sex of the baby at 20 weeks, which should be somewhere around Valentine's Day. This baby seems to like holidays...8 week ultrasound right around Thanksgiving, first trimester over around Christmas, hopefully morning sickness over by my birthday, next ultrasound at Valentine's Day and birth sometime close to 4th of July!
Interesting point of fact...all those many years ago, my husband first told me his feelings for me on July 3, 2003, when we were in Chicago for the fireworks. We started dating shortly thereafter in the summer before we went to college together at U of Illinois. That means that our baby could be born 10 years to the day since this whole adventure started. That's a nice round number. :)
My next doctor's visit will be Dec. 19 and at that point the first trimester will be over and maybe I'll be showing a little bit! I haven't taken any belly pictures yet but I hope to start that tradition this weekend. I'm on Pinterest looking all the time for ideas-do a weekly picture? Monthly? Wear the same outfit? I don't know, so I guess I need to think on it more. We're going to try to start clearing out the future nursery soon, because it is still a bit of a catchall room from when we moved to the house last April. This winter and spring are going to be very busy around here! But I love it, and I'm going to enjoy every second of it. :)
Love,
Ilea
PS-It's no secret that I am slightly obsessed with Kate Middleton...and rumor has it, she's pregnant! (Although, to be fair, that rumor isn't exactly new.) That would make all this even better...it's reassuring to think that if she IS pregnant, she's about where I am now, and having to do royal events, wear high heels and all kinds of things while feeling sick too. If she can do it, and still look that good, I really have no excuses!