22 Weeks

We can't believe that a whole month has already passed and it was time for our second perinatologist appointment today. Everything looks great and our doctor confirmed that it's definately a boy!! Now the shopping can begin! Here are some pictures of our little one....

By the look of the yawn he's got going, he's already bored with us!!!

Saying "Wuz up"

Another alien shot..........

Pregnancy Observations

Seeing as we have waited a long time for this, these are definitely not meant to be complaints but observations. Actually, we have been very fortunate with this pregnancy. I haven't had any morning sickness or nausea usually associated with pregnancy so I've been lucky! Here are a few of the changes I have noticed however....

1. After walking all day at Disneyland, I found out that swelling feet are just no fun and create a problem when you are not expecting it. The Monday after our trip to Disneyland, I was sitting at my desk and had slipped off my shoes while working on a project. Up to that point, I hadn't noticed any swelling in either of my feet. I slipped my right shoe back on with no problem, but then low and behold my left foot would not squeeze back into my shoe. Since I needed to go across the hall that presented a problem....it's not as though I could go hobbling around the hospital in one shoe! Now if I worked in a psych ward....maybe!! Since that time, we've had some pretty hot days (upper 90s) and wearing closed in shoes was not fun.......it's taken me a whole bunch of shoe stores and numerous shoes that wouldn't fit but I finally found some shoes that will hopefully work for the whole summer....I've bought them in brown and white.......now I just need to find them in black and I"ll be all set for the rest of the pregnancy!!

2. Unfortunately, not only have my feet decided that bigger is better but so has my ring finger on my left hand (don't ask me why but it's only that finger!). So I had to remove my engagement ring and wedding band. However, so my finger wouldn't feel so naked, Ben, being the sweet man that he is, bought me a "maternity band" that I can wear for the duration of the pregnancy from Tiffany's when we were shopping one weekend.

3. Getting used to going to the bathroom constantly has definitely been a challenge. I used to be able to go all day with limited potty breaks and now I can barely go two hours without having to make a potty run. For someone who has a great aversion to public restrooms this creates many many problems. For example, this past weekend, Ben and I went on a picnic and during our excursion I had to make a stop at one of the park restrooms. Let's just say park restrooms are right up there with beach restrooms as being extra disgusting. By the time I made it out of the restroom, I was gagging and tearing so badly that Ben thought that something terrible had happened....luckily I could him tell him that this was just my normal reaction to disgusting public restrooms!!

4. Sleep - this should be the easiest part of any day but now with all of the rules of how to sleep and with what I have to sleep with in conjunction with point #3 above this is not so easy anymore. I have always slept on my side but once I was told that I HAD to sleep on my side for the sake of the baby my body decided that what it wanted most was for me to sleep on my back or my stomach. The books recommend sleeping with pillows to help with this. Ben surprised me one day by bringing home my very own snoogle (which he had to drive forty miles to find)........which I completely love and would recommend to everyone - pregnant or not!! In addition, to this new addition to our bed I have to sleep with wrist guards on both hands....if any of you have had to wear these for carpel tunnel or other wrist issues you know they are not comfortable. Now imagine having to sleep with these things on....not pleasant at all!

Okay, I think those are enough of our "observations".....I'm sure there will be more to come....

A Trip to Disneyland

A couple of weeks ago my parents and sisters brought my little cousin, Sabrina, down for a visit and we spent the day at Disneyland. Ben and I quickly came to the realization that going to Disneyland with an almost four year old is completely different than going to Disneyland with people your age! Whereas, when we go with friends or family our age we are constantly on the go trying to get from one ride to the other, with a four year old that just isn't possible. The rides and attractions that most appealed to her were contained within a number of limited "lands" which meant less walking around like a madperson from land to land to ride to ride. By the end of the day, I could count on my fingers the number of rides we went on......that has never happened before. However, I must point out that we also stood in the longest line I have ever been in in my life - all for the Disney Princess Faire. At first glance the line looked benign, a few twist and turns but nothing compared to what you see at Space Mountain or Indiana Jones. After three hours in line and three Disney Princesses later, Ben and I were abused of that notion. In the end, Sabrina had a great time and I was only asked about a million times by my parents and Ben to "be careful" or if I "was okay".




1) Ben, Sabrina, and I (I was banned from getting on a horse by Ben!) 2) My parents waiting for us to finish with the Disney Princess Faire. 3) What my sisters had done while Ben, Sabrina, and I waited to visit with the Princesses!

Half Way There

Thank you everyone for all of the well wishes!! We have come to realize that we were remiss in our posts and forgot to mention how far along we are and when the due date is. As you can tell from the title of this post we just reached the half way point!! We are 20 weeks along and our due date is September 23rd.....a fall baby!! Twenty weeks seems like forever away but we're sure the time will fly by and we'll be welcoming our little boy to the family soon enough.

Boy or Girl..........

During our stressful visit to the perinatologist we weren't really thinking about the gender of the baby and we almost forgot to ask. But thankfully, before we left the room we remembered....and according to the doctor, we are following in the footsteps of all of our friends who have recently had children and will be beginning our brood with a BOY!! Although Ben will tell you that he really wanted a girl because according to him there would be less pressure/stress, his initial reaction at the doctor's office revealed his true feelings. He is estatic that we are having a boy and can't keep the smirk off his face when ever it is mentioned! In the end, we are both just thankful that the baby is healthy.

Second Hurdle

As if staying pregnant is not enough for us to worry about, we had the unpleasant experience of learning all about the AFP Test. The AFP test is a test that is offered to all women under the age of 35 by the State of California to test for birth defects (Down's Syndrome, Spina Bifida, Trisomy 18, and other defects). Wanting to be prepared and hoping for the best, we decided to go ahead with the test. We have a wonderful OB that has spent a lot of time with us these past years and is wonderful about calling us about everything and checking up on us. That said, when we received her call telling us that our AFP test came back abnormal this was one time we weren't thrilled to receive her call. Initially we were told that our test was "low" and this was an indication for Down's Syndrome. The odds went from 1/1100 to 1/275. We already knew that we would have to be visiting a perinatologist since this was a "high risk" pregnancy but because of the AFP results our appointment was going to be bumped up. Three days before our perinatologist appointment we met with our OB and after reviewing the hardcopy results it turned out that our results were not abnormal for Down's Syndrome but for Spina Bifida. We had already discussed the possibility of what we would do if we had a Down's baby but we weren't prepared for the possibility of dealing with Spina Bifida. With a Down's baby we knew that the baby would survive however, with Spina Bifida there are was the chance that the pregnancy would not be viable.

After three long stressful days, we went to the perinatologist and met with a genetic counsler and the doctor. After a detailed ultrasound where they checked the baby's organs, brain, spine, and genitals we were happy to find that our baby was healthy and developing on schedule. No signs of Spina Bifida were present and the baby was given a clean bill of health. We are still unsure of what caused the "abnormal" test results but the perinatologist was not overly worried. So long story short........our baby is progressing as it should.

Finally.....

.....our time has come!! We are happy to share with all of you - our family and friends - that we are expecting our own little zygote. During these past few years, we've had our share of heartache but we are hopeful that our recent run of good luck will continue.

As many of you know Ben's greatest dream is to have an army of Ben clones running amok on our planet........however, he is going to have to settle with a 50/50 split. Here's a picture of our little one at 13 weeks. However, I must point out that at this point it is really hard to confirm that Ben has not really cloned himself and done something weird in the lab and not told me..........we'll just have to wait and see!!

And another at 15 weeks (the baby resembles a little alien in these shots!)............

As many of you know between the two of us we have too many jobs and we are horrible at emailing and phoning and texting and writing and any other standard form of communication, hence, we have created this blog to try to keep everyone up-to-date. (Please note that we said "try" as we may also fail at this type of communication!) For those of you interested in following us in this journey please feel free to check back for updates.......for those of you that are not interested.....too bad.......we can't imagine that you will be able to get away without hearing something about this pregancy in the upcoming months.