Nesting

So I know I'm not even 15 weeks yet, but I can't help it. I just want everything to be ready for the baby. Mike and I already bought the crib and the mattress; I know, I know, it's super early, but I don't care! We're excited, so what?! Having a baby is only the biggest things to happen to us in our entire lives. I think it's the biggest thing that can ever happen to someone. It changes your entire life, or so I've heard. The next step is to buy all the bedding and nursery decor, but we have to wait to find out the sex of the baby first, only one more month, I can do it. It's so hard not to go out and buy all the stuff on our registry. Like I said before, I just want everything to be ready, already! We still have a bunch of crap in the baby's room that needs to be cleared out. I told Mike I want that done shortly after we find out the sex of the baby so we can have the nursery ready at least. I know, again I still won't be that far along even then, but who says you have to wait until your third trimester to get all this stuff done? I'd rather do it now while I'm not huge, and while I still have some energy. We already had the dressers we wanted to use for the baby's room, now we have the crib, the only other piece of furniture was the rocker/glider that I wanted to nurse the baby in. Mike's grandfather got us a nursing rocker for the baby, and we have other rockers in the barn, so we have options. They're not the nice comfortable glider that I wanted, but the deal is that I'll see how they work and if they're not working out he's buying me the glider I wanted to begin with and the other rockers will be for sale on craigslist if anyone's interested ;)

Here's the crib all set up :)

And here's the nursing rocker from Mike's grandfather

Week 13

I'm finally done with my first trimester, only 27 weeks to go. I had my second prenatal visit and I got all of my blood work results and first trimester screening results back. All the blood work was normal, and the first trimester screening took baby's odds for having down syndrome and trisomy 18 WAY down. It took the chances of baby having down syndrome from 1 in 750 to 1 in 11,500 and the chances of trisomy 18 from 1 in 1,870 to 1 in 138,000! I am definitely glad we got the testing done. In a few weeks I can get the second trimester screening done, which is just blood work. Also I got to schedule my anatomic ultrasound scan which is when you can find out the sex of the baby. The ultrasound is on August 23rd, but we won't find out the sex until September 1st when we have our gender revel party. It's just going to be close family and friends, but don't worry we will post pictures of the cake to let everyone know what sex the baby is. I'm already super excited! 

Warning, massive bitching ahead (don't read if you don't want to hear it): 

New (not to mention, lovely) development on the pregnancy symptoms front: arms and legs falling asleep in the middle of the night and having to wake up every hour and a half to switch positions. I love being pregnant... not! I am already exhausted all the time, oh you know making a baby and everything, loosing sleep over this is just what I need. Oh also this acne that is way worse than anything I've ever experienced is also lovely. Whoever said pregnancy is wonderful and makes you glow is full of shit. I don't even have it that bad, I've had friends that have had it way worse during their pregnancies, hats off to them. The only good thing that is coming from this whole experience is the end result: my very own flesh and blood baby; and I can't wait to meet him or her. 

Week 12

So we had our second ultrasound today for the 1st trimester screening which looks for risk factors for Down Syndrome, Trisomy 18, and heart defects. They measure this fluid filled space that lies on the back of baby's neck called the Nuchal Translucency or Nuchal Fold and the measurement gives them a good indication whether the baby is at a higher risk for these problems. The normal range for the Nuchal Translucency or Nuchal Fold is lower than 3mm, but usually closer to 1-2mm. Our baby's nuchal fold was right in the middle of that range measuring at 1.5mm. The specially trained ultrasound technician told us almost as soon as she put the probe on my abdomen that the nuchal fold was thin and that she was sure it was within normal range, but she had to wait for baby to get into position to measure accurately. When she first put the probe on me baby was sleeping, but he/she started bouncing around in no time. The ultrasound technician said that they sleep and wake about every ten minutes at this stage. So they're awake for about ten minutes or so and then they sleep for about ten minutes or so. Anyways, we got to watch baby move all over the place until he/she was finally in the right position for the measurements. We got to watch baby wave at us, kick his/her long legs as the ultrasound technician called them, stretch out, and attempt to put his/her hand in his/her mouth. It was amazing. We also got to hear (and see) the baby's heart beat again today. It was 156 beats per minute this time. The normal range is between 120-180 beats per minute.

Like I said before, even if the test today showed that the baby was at a higher risk for having down syndrome or other nural tube defects it wouldn't change anything, it would just be nice to be prepared for that chance. Also, it's nice knowing that baby is perfectly healthy and that his/her chance of having those defects is low. I told Mike after the ultrasound that it was nice to have that additional ultrasound just to see that the baby is still there, still healthy, still growing. It just put me at ease. You know me, I'm a worrier.

The ultrasound technician was very nice and took about 10 pictures of the baby for us without me even asking. Here are the best two:

I apologize for the pics being sideways (I don't know how to fix it)