13 weeks!!!

in a few short days i will be out of my first trimester!  woohoo!  i have noticed that some of my energy is returning, but i never had sickness, so i am still feeling good!

baby is the size of a peach!

growth milestones for the week:

~vocal cords are forming
~teeth are forming
~baby has fingerprints
~facial features are starting to develop, and the cheeks and bridge of nose are noticable
~eyebrows have formed
~baby has a fine coat of hair all over called "lanugo" which will be shed before birth, it is thought that this has a protective function
~insulin is present in baby's pancreas
~thyroid glad is developed and by this week begins to make hormones

 it's been a big week for doctors appointments and i have all good news to report.  it started with a check up earlier in the week, and we got to hear the baby's heart beat, it was 161 beats per minute.  everything else went smooth, however during a breast exam the doctor noticed a lump on my breast.  she said this is normal with all the growth and hormonal changes during pregnancy, but wanted me to follow up with and ultrasound to double check.  i went in for my ultrasound and they said it is all normal breast tissue, so that was a relief!  if you aren't worried about one thing it is another.  the doctor said i have lost 2 pounds since my 6 week appointment and she is encouraging me to EAT!  i feel like i am eating a lot as it is, i have been addicted to subway lately, and i have been getting a foot long at lunch.  you aren't supposed to eat deli meats during pregnancy unless they are heated to avoid listeria, so i have them double toast my sub until there is steam coming off of it to be on the safe side.

my second appointment this week was for my NT ultrasound or genetic testing.  it is a 2 part test that is a thorough ultrasound and blood work.  they do the ultrasound to check for the levels of fluid in the neck, high levels of fluid are associated with certain chromosomal abnormalities.  the doctor said everything looked perfectly healthy and he doesn't expect to see different when i get my blood results in 2 weeks.  we got to hear the heartbeat again (167 beats per minute today) and here is a link to a video of the ultrasound.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5dT6kw9x8jDM0xNcXRGZFRhVkk/view

at this point all of our family and friends know and we just made it "facebook official" and the outpouring of love and excitement is overwhelming.  it is finally starting to sink in and feel real.  in fact we got some baby gifts this week!  a friend of jarad's that he flies with, dropped off some children's books on our doorstep this week and our good friends in washington sent me some pregnancy gifts; a pregnancy workout video, belly butter (to prevent stretch marks on your growing belly) and a dr. seuss book!  and we have family friends that are knitting baby clothes.  my heart is so full!

12 weeks!!!

wow, we are almost officially out of the first trimester!  we just got home from an amazing trip back east and although i am not ready to get back to reality, i am excited for our week ahead!  i have two important doctors appointments this week, so i can't wait to get another chance to peak in on baby berk!

i am still feeling good, but unfortunately i did get sick on vacation.  i have no idea what it was from, since i haven't experienced any morning sickness so far.  but i was nauseous, no appetite and had an upset stomach.  luckily we were staying at my brother and sister in laws house and they just had their baby 3 weeks ago, so my sister in law set me up with epsom salt baths, tums, seltzer water and saltines.  it lasted for about a day and a half and when i finally snapped out of it, i was feeling good and was hungry!!!  hard to tell if it was morning sickness or another pregnancy symptom or just food poisoning?  either way, i am glad it didn't last too long and it didn't affect our plans too much.

it was exciting to share the exciting news in person with jarad's family and the real purpose of our trip was to meet our new niece.  i got to enjoy holding her and feeding her and the best time we had together was when i was watching her while her mom ran an errand and the boys cleaned out the garage and she fell asleep on my chest.  there is something about the feel and smell of a baby that is like no other.  i was taking notes, asking questions and very interested to see what baby products they liked the best.

here are some growth milestones for week 12...

~baby's legs are longer than arms, but arms are long enough to reach mouth and possibly even suck their thumb
~tissue that will become bones is being laid out and some ribs may be distinguished by now
~placenta is now providing all the nutrients and oxygen to baby
~all major components of the body are formed, but will be going through the growth and maturation stage
~muscular and nervous system are responding to each other
~baby's liver and spleen are producing blood cells and pancreas is starting to release digestive enzymes

today to my surprise, jarad noticed the faint start of the dark line down my belly.  and i am happy to say that even while indulging a bit on vacation, i still have not gained any weight.  i am still down a pound from my pre-pregnancy weight!  so it looks like i will definitely make my goal of no weight gain in the first trimester. 

baby the size of a plum!

11 weeks!!!

wow, i am over 25% cooked and almost out of my first trimester!  so far things have been easy for me, i really can't complain.  i am still struggling with exhaustion, especially in the middle of the day at work.  but my hunger is evening out and i have been lucky enough to have completely avoided any morning sickness.

i really started to notice big changes in my body this week.  my boobs and belly are both bigger!  i still have not gained weight but the few pounds i did lose in early pregnancy are beginning to creep back on.  my goal is to not get any higher than my pre-pregnancy weight by the end of the first trimester.  at this point my uterus is enlarged enough to protrude over my pubic bone, it is feeling less like bloat and my stomach is feeling harder.  apparently this week it is common to start to get a dark line that runs down your belly called the "linea negra," this is from your stomach muscles stretching, but it has not appeared for me yet!

baby is the size of a lime

here are some baby growth milestones this week...

~fingers and toes are getting longer
~baby can drink amniotic fluid and flush it out as urine
~head is becoming more rounded and it he/she has eyelids
~fingernails are forming
~head is almost as big as rest of body
~at some point this week blood will start circulating between uterus and fetus and the placenta will start functioning

i am so excited to be leaving for a nice and relaxing vacation, and the best part is we will begin it with an ultrasound.  our baby has a strong heartbeat of 147 (same as last time) and we even got to hear it, music to my ears!!!  it has grown quite a bit and actually looks like a mini human in there.  we got to see the arms, feet and umbilical cord.  we went to a private ultrasound place, so it was a technician giving me all the info, so we can't confirm anything until i see my doctor when we return from vacation, but the tech did tell me we are measuring at 12 weeks 2 days (about a week further along) and the baby weighs 2 ounces, which is big in size, yikes!

10 weeks!!!

as i am almost out of my 10th week of pregnancy, we finally started to tell some of our close friends the exciting news!  so now i feel like i can get you caught up on my blog and get you up to date!

here are some big developmental markers this week:

~working arm joints and cartilage & bones are forming
~vital organs are fully developed and starting to function
~fingernails and hair are starting to appear
~baby can swallow and kick

my hunger and exhaustion is starting to die down a bit.  in fact i have actually had a hard time sleeping this week, i am really restless.  i continue to feel great and no morning sickness.  i have incorporated a few maternity clothing items into my wardrobe (just on the weekends) that are incredibly comfortable!  i am trying to hide it for one more week at work, then we leave to go back east for vacation and when we return i will be 13 weeks pregnant and out of our first trimester.

over the next 3 weeks our baby will go through a big growth spurt and double in length!

10 weeks baby is the size of a date/prune

9 weeks!!!

i am officially 9 weeks pregnant today (august 25, 2015) and this is happening!

i had to use a hair tie to give me more room in my jeans today!  WOW!!!  i haven't gained any weight, in fact i a down a couple of pounds, but i am still bloated and apparently my uterus has more than doubled in size and is as big as a grapefruit!  baby berk is the size of a green olive and has graduated from an embryo to a fetus!  some other developmental milestones this week are...

~baby's heart will finish dividing into 4 chambers and valves will start to form
~teeth will start to form
~eyes are fully formed but won't open until 27 weeks
~baby's mouth, nose, nostrils and earlobes are starting to look more distinct

i am still hungry and tired, but my doctor feels hopeful that if i have not experienced morning sickness by now then i will most likely avoid it completely!  i have learned that i must eat before leaving for work, carry snacks, pack a lunch and drink a lot of water!!!  today i had coffee for the first time in about a week, and i immediately felt light headed and broke out into a cold sweat, so i think i will be avoiding coffee from now on.  i get up multiple times a night to pee and as cliche as it sounds, i have gone through my first jar of pickles!  i still get out of breathe easily and am having vivid dreams.

this week i broke down and bought a few maternity clothing items.  i was super resistant, but i am actually excited to have some clothes that are cute, fit well and will allow me to grow into them.  i did well at target, i am loving the liz lange maternity collection and old navy as well.  my weight is down 2 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight, but my body is definitely changing!  particularly my pants are getting tighter and uncomfortable as my waist line increases. here is one of my fav new dresses with me at 9 weeks!

9 weeks pregnant is the size of a grape!

8 weeks!!!

hard to believe i am 8 weeks pregnant! i am still feeling good, a few days of not feeling so hot, but i also blame the heat for that!  my new symptom is that i am short of breath, even doing simple tasks like putting my hair up or folding laundry will make me breathe harder. 

baby the size of a raspberry

thank goodness my hunger has calmed down a bit as well as my exhaustion.  although working out (aside from walking) is getting harder and harder.  last weekend we broke down and told our family the exciting news.  we will stay traditional and wait until after the first trimester to officially spill the beans.
here are some developmental markers this week...

~baby is starting to move (even though i can't feel it)
~fingers and toes are only slightly webbed and the tail is gone
~taste buds are starting to form
~baby is growing a millimeter each day

i had my first prenatal visit with my doctor on friday august 21st (at this point i will be 8 weeks 4 days).  everything went well, it was a lot of information and i got to ask the doctor my long list of questions.  we got to take a quick peek through a sonogram of little baby berk!  again, we had a strong heartbeat and he/she even jumped and was moving around a lot! 

7 weeks!!!

today (friday august 14th, 2015) is a big day for us, our first ultrasound!!!!!  we have never gotten this far along in any pregnancy, so we are excited and nervous.

i had a second round of bloodwork done this week (monday august 10th to be exact) to check in on my HCG levels and they came in at 62,467, which seems right on target.  the HCG levels start to slow down once they reach a certain level.  so at this point an ultrasound will provide us with more useful information on how the pregnancy is progressing.

as of today, i believe to be 7 weeks 1 day pregnant, but the ultrasound came back to show we are a few days farther along, coming in at 7 weeks 4 days!  this puts the estimated due date at march 28, 2016, which also happens to be jarad's birthday.  he is super excited about this!

if you look inside the black circle, there is a smaller circle, that is the yolk sac, which will eventually turn into the placenta.  and the green bean looking thing to the left is baby berk!  there was a strong and healthy heartbeat of 147 per minute!  this was the perfect start to our weekend!  i am feeling so happy and a bit relieved. here is a link to the video of the heartbeat!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5dT6kw9x8jDNHR0RXZHWnlVRTQ/view

this week my hunger has really kicked in!  i feel like a high school teenage boy going through a growth spurt who is on the football team.  i can not satisfy my hunger!  i am more tired than normal and have had two days in the last week where i felt nauseous, but never threw up.  i have also noticed that my workouts are becoming harder and i get out of breath easily.  but all and all i feel good and as long as i get good rest and enough food, i am good to go!

7 weeks is the size of a blueberry!

6 weeks!!!

i got the results back from my first doctors appointment (which was on 8/6/15).

my progesterone came in at 17.5, my acupuncturist says they are looking for over 15 (so i am good here!)

my HCG levels came in at 36,056!  this is on the high side of normal, which may mean we are further along then we think we are.  we won't know until we have an ultrasound next week.  normal range for HCG at 6 weeks is (1,080 - 56,000).  what is important is that your HCG level doubles every 48-72 hours, so i will retest in a fews days to confirm this.  as a reference point, with my second miscarriage, my HCG level never got about 155, so this is great news for me!

and here is a belly shot at what we believe to be 6 weeks...

6 weeks is the size of a sweet pea!

party of 3?!?!?!?!

only a few people know at this point, but today (thurs august 6th 2015) i am 6 weeks pregnant!!!  this is our 3rd pregnancy is 7 months and just as recently as june we had our 2nd miscarriage in 6 months.  we decided to take the summer off from "trying" and look where we are!  we could not be more shocked and happy!

trying to start our family has been a long and difficult process for us, but we are staying positive that this time around will be different and that we will soon become a family of three, due right around jarad's birthday in march!!!

i want to document this process and keep you updated on our progress.  i won't be posting this for a while, but i want to fill you in on everything!  as i mentioned my best guess is that i am 6 weeks today!  i am feeling good, more tired than normal, hungry and the occasional queasiness feeling sometimes.  i had my first check up today (with nurse practitioner), it was filled with lots of overall health questions, dos and dont's and bloodwork.

i will repeat my bloodwork in a few days to make sure my HCG levels are rising appropriately and then at the end of next week i will go in for my first ultrasound to see exactly how far along we are and to see the heartbeat!

so far my weight has not fluctuated but i am definitely feeling and looking bloated.  at 6 weeks our baby is the size of a sweat pea and is circulating blood, spouting eyes, has "limb buds" growing, the brain is growing, the heart is beating and the face is starting to take shape!  WOW!!!

we are excited and anxious as this is the furthest i have gotten in any of my pregnancies.  here are some belly pics so you can see me change week by week.

4 weeks is the size of a poppy seed!

5 weeks is the size of an apple seed!