13 Weeks

It's taken a little longer then I thought but here is my 13 week shot (from 2 weeks ago). I promise I WILL get on the ball with this before the baby is here, lol!

My new favorite shirt!

Prenatal Yoga

I'm not proclaiming to be a yoga expert. In fact, I'm far from it. But I have been doing yoga on and off for several years and have always really enjoyed how it made me feel and the strength/flexibility that it gave me. So I always knew that I would want to do prenatal yoga when the day came.

Flash forward to me getting pregnant and literally the entire first trimester I felt like poop. Just the idea of working out was laughable to me because there was NO WAY it was going to happen. Well I have been in my second trimester now for almost two weeks and I can honestly say that I am feeling the best I have felt since beginning the whole IVF process! You hear people say that you will feel better in the second tri but when you are hanging your head over a toilet puking for 50% of your day and passed out from exhaustion the other 50% of the time it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I actually recall telling Mike at one point that if I didn't start to feel better soon this was going to be a one time deal so he better adjust to the idea of having just one kid! But I can truthfully say that I am feeling more like myself these days. So much so that I decided it was time to start up the prenatal yoga. The hospital that I will be delivering at offers prenatal yoga classes once a week for only $10 (or buy 3 get 4 classes). My first class was this morning and I LOVED it! The instructor asked us if we had any specific area that have been bothering us (for me it was my lower back) and she made sure to point out what poses best helped relieve those specific aches. She made sure we were all taking time to breathe properly through the poses and not over exert ourselves. She also made sure to explain variations that can make the poses easier for you as your belly gets bigger and it gets harder to do everything. And obviously with the class being specifically aimed at pregnant women, it took the stress out of having to think about which poses are considered unsafe during pregnancy. It was actually eye opening for me to realize that while I do have some experience with yoga and consider myself pretty flexible and able to do most poses, I can't push myself the way I used to - my body is different now and the baby is the number one thing I need to think about. It also just felt really good to be active again. Since I'm not working now I feel like I don't do as much physically as I used to. Don't get me wrong, I love not working! I guess it just felt good to feel like life is getting back to normal again... So anyways, I really enjoyed it and think I will continue to go for the rest of my pregnancy.

That's about all the news I have for you today. And in case you were keeping track, only 10 more days until we find out if this little person in me is going to be an Emma or a Mason!!

10, 11, and 12 weeks!

OK bloggies, I'm playing catch up with belly photos. I'll post weeks 13 and 14 in the next couple days and I'll pick back up with all the weekly info at that point but I honestly can't remember specifics like what I was craving etc... from that long ago so I'll just stick with the pics for these three weeks.

I had major bloat at this point!!

I got TONS of cute (and comfy) maternity clothes form my MIL for Xmas!

Bloat has finally gone away and it is all belly now!

Bad Blogger!

I can't believe it's been about a month since I last blogged! How have I let so much time go by? It's not just my blog that I've been neglecting either, I've been kinda MIA on TB too. Have no fear though, one of my New Year's resolutions is to be a better blogger so I promise you'll be seeing much more of me from now on.

So what have I been up to lately? At my last post I was 9 weeks pregnant and I am now 14 weeks!! Holy moly I can't believe I'm in the second trimester! Let's see... I had my final appointment with Dr. Lee  on January 2nd. We brought an Edible Arrangement for everyone in the office and all the girls loved it. I had my final u/s with Dr. Lee that morning and he recorded it onto a DVD for Mike and I. That and about a million baby magazines (seriously, I still haven't read through them all) were in my "goodbye goody bag".

The next day Mike and I had to wake up at the crack of dawn to go to our NT scan. I was so terrified that they were going to find that the baby had Down Syndrome or something like that but thankfully all the ultrasound images looked normal. The ultrasound was pretty cool because it was much more zoomed in then all the ultrasounds Dr. Lee had done. Baby was super wiggly that morning so it took the tech a while to get a picture for us and even then she apologized that she couldn't get a clearer image but I didn't mind because just knowing the baby was healthy was enough for me!

Baby Mitchell in the NT Scan. Head is on the left and it is laying on it's back looking upwards.

I had an appointment today with Dr. Sugihara (my OB in case I haven't introduced her yet). It's still so strange to only have appointments every 4 weeks now. I really miss all the ultrasounds of the baby! Anyways, everything went well. She said that all the blood work from the NT scan came back normal. We were also finally able to hear the baby's heart beat on the Doppler! After a minute or two of searching, the nurse finally found it but it only lasted for about 10 seconds before the baby moved and we couldn't find it again. If fetal movement is any indication of how the baby will be outside of the womb I am in trouble because this little one is a crazy mover. I'm sure I'll be in for a fun ride once I can actually feel it kicking!! 

My next appointment isn't for another four weeks but I will be getting my second trimester screening done in the next week and then will get the results at my next OB appointment. This is the final step in the genetic screening process and it is testing for Spina Bifida/Neural Tube Defects. I'm sure I won't fully relax until I get those results back (and even then I'm sure there will be something else to worry about) but I am definitely feeling more relaxed and confident these days. Sure, something can always happen. But I can't possible go on 9 months feeling that way - I'll drive myself crazy! I'm in the second trimester now and feel reasonably confident that this is going to happen and everything will be OK. I don't actually remember at what point I stopped freaking out that the worst would happen at every appointment but it seemed like I just woke up one morning and knew that it would all be OK. 

Probably my most exciting news is that Mike and I will be finding out the sex (hopefully) of this little one in just 12 days!! Ahhhhhhhhhhh, I CAN'T WAIT! We just couldn't stand the idea of waiting until the anatomy scan (anywhere from 18-20 weeks) so we opted to pay for an elective 4D ultrasound package. We get to go on January 27th for the gender determination (and they said we can keep coming back weekly if the baby doesn't clearly show if it's a boy or girl) and then we get to go back around 30ish weeks for a 4D ultrasound. I am pretty sure it's a girl but I could be wrong. I've just had a feeling the entire time that it's a girl, though that may only be because I've always wanted a girl, but even Mike is leaning towards thinking it's a girl (though he says it begrudgingly). I even went out and bought a few adorable baby girl outfits at Carter's today since they were having an awesome sale. I'm going to keep the tags on everything just in case it's a boy but hopefully my intuition is right and I won't need to return them!