The First 19 Weeks

Hi friends and family!  Ben and I wanted to start this blog to share with you our pregnancy experience as well as news and photos of Baby K once he or she is finally here!  We hope you enjoy it!

In this first blog post, I'm going to attempt to sum up the first 4 or 5 months of our pregnancy.  Bear with me because I have a lot to share in this first post, but subsequent ones will be shorter.

Month 1 - We found out Baby K was on the way!!  Baby K was conceived right around my bday in Sept.  We had joked that this was the only gift I wanted from Ben for my bday.  All along we had been planning to start trying around our 1st anniversary in Oct. but we jumped the gun a little and started in August.  Anyways nothing happened in August and in September, I started taking pregnancy tests at around 3 weeks because I couldn't wait and the first 3 were negative, but I knew it might just be too early to tell.  The weekend of Sep. 24 we went to Martha and Marc's wedding in Boston and fooled all our friends and family into thinking I was drinking that weekend when I wasn't.  The following Tuesday, Sep. 28th, I didn't feel so hot at work and I knew I had to take another test that night.  I went home from work and took the test.  Ben and I waited a very long 3 minutes, kind of expecting the negative we had already seen several times before, then we went into the bathroom together took one look at the test and this time...2 little pink lines!!!  It was positive!!  Even though we had been trying, we still couldn't believe it.  I think I said, "oh my God, I can't believe it!" about 40,000 times in a row.  It was probably the best night of our lives so far, we couldn't be happier!  I was 3 weeks and 4 days pregnant and the baby was only the size of a Poppyseed according to my What to Expect iphone app.

Month 2 - So at this point, I was just waiting for the nausea and vomiting and all that good stuff I had heard about to kick in, but it never did.  I was just extremely, extremely exhausted!!  Always!  I could barely make it through the day at work, and of course nobody at work knew what was going on so it was just brutal!  At the same time I started taking my prenatal vitamins, and making an extra effort to exercise and eat right but it was so hard because all I wanted to do was sleep...and I did plenty of that too!  Luckily, my wonderful husband would have dinner ready for me when I got home, and I would barely scarf it down before I'd be passed out on the couch...done for the night!  Ben had to be careful though because the food aversions had set in so something I felt like eating the day before could be off limits by the next day.  Salad?  Blech! Chicken?  Tasted like feet.  Ben was excited about some of my cravings though...meatball subs and Chipotle burritos with sour cream, yum!  I also couldn't get enough fruit and yogurt. 

At the end of this month, we had a little scare that landed us in the emergency room one night.  It was a rough night, but everything turned out ok and we had our first ultrasound that night where we got to see our little peanut for the first time.  It just looked like a little blob, with a beating heart.  But the heartbeat was perfect, and to us it was the most beautiful thing in the world.

Month 3 - During this month, we took a week long trip to Tuscany.  We had planned it long before the baby, but I guess it turned into an early babymoon.  I couldn't drink any wine of course, but I made up for not drinking in what I was eating...mostly in hot chocolate and gelato.  I had hot chocolate or gelato twice a day.  Not to mention all the pizza, pasta and paninis, so good!!  And what I wasn't drinking, Ben was, haha.  That's part of the husband's job, you know, to drink what the wife can't.  Hey, he had me to drive the rental car home, so why not?  I just wouldn't let him forget it the next day when I wanted to buy a nice Italian purse or something. :-)

Also in month 3, a new craving was born.  I've only had one constant craving during the pregnancy so far...enter my undying love for whipped cream!  I cannot get enough!!  Seriously, I have it on my cereal or waffles every morning.  One morning when we were out of waffles, I almost put it on toast, but then stopped myself.  I have it on decaf starbucks lattes, hot chocolate and ice cream.  It's kind of out of control!  I guess there could be worse things to crave though.

At the end of Month 3, we had a second ultrasound and this time our baby actually looked like a baby (well, to everyone except Ben's grandfather who thought it was a turkey, haha!) with a cute little nose and everything!  We were told our baby was looking great and all the tests were normal so far.  Our baby was actually growing a week ahead of schedule...we have an overachiever on our hands, which isn't surprising given who the baby's parents are.  We had this ultrasound the day before Thanksgiving so we got to share the picture with all our family over the holiday and finally tell all our extended family and friends the good news!

Month 4 - Yay, we've made it out of that fragile first trimester!!  Finally, in month 4 my energy level started to return to normal.  I took this opportunity to ramp up the exercise level a little bit to try to keep Baby K and I in top condition.  We also have started to make some preparations by buying some nursery furniture, signing up for childbirth, infant care and breastfeeding classes and buying some books about birth and the baby and not just about pregnancy.

At this point the baby can hear our voices so we've started talking to the baby.  Ben has even read a book to the baby, awww!!  I sing to the baby sometimes, but everyone who has heard me sing knows that's just kind of mean so I try not to torture the baby too much, haha!  I also try not to yell because I don't watn to scare the baby, but Meatball has made that very challenging lately!  I really think he's knows he's not going to be the center of attention anymore already so he's started acting up.

At the end of Month 4, on Christmas day, I had another little scare like it had in Month 2 when I went to the emergency room, but this time I knew better and it turned out just to be a hilarious bathroom story, the details of which I'll spare here.  Suffice it to say a tiny little baby can really wreak havoc on your digestive system!  Oh, and speaking of the bathroom, I forgot to mention earlier that during my entire pregnancy I've peed more than I ever thought was humanly possible.  I mean like every 15 minutes sometimes, crazy!  One other little complaint...all these hormones do not agree with my skin!  My face is breaking out like I'm 15 again, yuck!  At least this time, I know there's a baby at the end so it's worth it.

Month 5 - So this is where I'm at now.  19 weeks today.  Baby K is the size of a small cantaloupe.  What a journey it's been so far from poppyseed to cantaloupe! 

Also, in month 5, we finally heard the baby's heartbeat for this first time and it sounded amazing!!  Ben was away for that doctor's appointment but I was so grateful my mom flew down for the day just to come to my appointment with me.  It was so fun!  I recorded the heartbeat on my iphone though so Ben and the rest of the family could hear it.  What did people do before iphones??  I'm also pretty certain I've been feeling some fetal movement lately...some little flutters as everyone describes it.  I'm feeling them more often now, but they're still subtle.  I'm waiting for that first big kick!!  Come on, baby!

So, that about sums it up so far.  The next big event will be at our next ultrasound one week from today when we'll be finding out (finally!) if Baby K is a he or a she!!!  I wasn't sure if I wanted to find out the sex at first, but Ben has wanted to the whole time.  Now that I've decided we're going to find out, I just can't wait for it to get here already!  So, look out for another post in about a week where we'll announce the sex, have a new ultrasound pic and some new belly pics as well.  Yay!!

I hope you enjoy our blog and that you're as excited for Baby K as Ben and I are!  We couldn't be happier and are just so grateful that everything has been going so well so far!!

Tara

Xo            

 The second ultrasound Baby K actually looks like a baby!  This was the day before Thanksgiving.

Proud mama-to-be on New Year's Eve!  What a year 2011 will be!

Belly - 17 Weeks!  I hope nobody minds seeing my bare pregnant belly!