13w5d

I <3 coffee! (supposed to be name of post, but for some reason I cannot publish these specific characters -- sometimes I hate blogger).

After a fitful night of sleep -- with a headache (same as 36 hour one last time) and a sore throat plus a phone call at 4something am (to confirm a snow day -- woohoo!!!!), I was determined to make a change this morning.  After abstaining from coffee for who knows how long, I decided to indulge myself.  I had a 1/2 cup of 1/2 caf coffee and sweet baby Jesus, it was DELICIOUS.  I figure I'm well into my first trimester, if not my second, so what the hell.  Besides:

http://www.webmd.com/baby/news/20100721/moderate-coffee-drinking-ok-in-pregnancy

In other news, I told my coworkers who were already speculating and gossiping all over the place (everyone was really sweet and happy for me), I guess I'm showing in a significant way (much sooner than before, but with the existing extra inches, no wonder). My butt and belly feel gigantic to me... I always change into elastic waistband pants as soon as I get home from work.  I haven't broken out the maternity clothes yet, but did get some new stuff for my b-day (the other day), which is fun.  My old stuff doesn't look too dated, so those should be usable.  Wearing the Bella band w/ my pants WAY open and also sticking to lots of stretchy skirts.  I had to videotape a lesson that I was teaching the other day (for National Board Certification -- bleck, what an unfun process) and when I watched the footage, I was quite stunned by how much junk I had in the trunk.  Ah well...

I'm ready to start feeling movement, because I do still feel anxious about what's going on in there.  And monthly visits to the ob/gyn hardly seem sufficient.

Symptom-wise, I'm enjoying constipation and hemorrhoids, TMI, but it's a fact.  The wooziness is definitely subsiding (YAY!) but is still present, hints of it here and there.  With my sore throat, I'm definitely having trouble sleeping and DH has been complaining of my horrific snoring.

Don't I sound sexy?  : )

Sweet, Sweet DS

Even though we had no intention of evicting DS from his room (his bedroom is the only other one aside from ours on the main floor of our house), today, DS voluntarily offered to share his room with the baby.  I said that the crying might disrupt his sleep, but that we'd certainly appreciate using a corner of his room for baby stuff so we didn't have to always schlep to the basement (where the baby room will be, finished basement, lest you think we are relegating B2 to a dungeon.  And we do plan to do have some sort of video monitoring system).

At dinner tonight, too, DS melted me when he was talking about how he'd help out:

"If you and daddy are both working on the computer and there is a spider and the baby is crying, I could get a tissue and kill the spider."

Nevermind that he has actually never done that on his own and always screams "spider!!!" whenever he sees one, but the sentiment still touched me.  : )

Leave IVF Alone!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gingrich-vows-to-ban-embryonic-stem-cell-research-questions-in-vitro-practices/2012/01/29/gIQAIO9saQ_story.html?tid=pm_politics_pop

Ugh... Newt and government needs to stay out of IVF, including dealing with leftover embryos.

13 Weeks!

Today marks 13 weeks.  I'm so confused as to when second trimester begins.  There are like three different dates according to http://www.ivf.ca/fet5dayduedate.php.  Development, gestation and conception.

Starting to tell more and more people and it's still super weird.  Still haven't told my dad (I'm not very close to him)!  I just still feel weird about it -- it's still kind of surreal.  Of course, I am happy and excited too...

A couple days ago, I went to my first trimester screening.  It was nice to have another ultrasound and see the baby markedly bigger than before.  The tech didn't say anything about the sex of the baby so I didn't ask.  The doctor mentioned a new screening (blood test) that just came out in Oct 2011:

http://www.sequenomcmm.com/home/health-care-professionals/trisomy-21/about-the-test/

Apparently, it's way more detailed than the old blood test and it actually looks at the fetal DNA which is floating around in the mother's blood.  If my risk factor is currently 1 in 300 for Down Syndrome, then a negative test changes the risk to 1 in 14,000 (if I remember the figures right).  The test is supposed to be 99.1 or 99.9% accurate.  So I went ahead and did it.

Supposed to have results for the nuchal translucency scan and the blood test in a week.

Until then, I am anxious for the nausea to die down.  I still felt a bit blecky tonight, maybe tomorrow will be the turning point.

Not ready for Monday!!!  Will tell coworkers on Thursday though...

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I miss you Advil.

12w1d.  Told DS over the weekend.  It was horribly anticlimactic and taught me a lesson.  Less is more.  I tried to make it special.  I put a baggie of baby things (mostly DS's old stuff, which I've saved) and a newborn diaper (forgotten how SMALL -- practically a maxi pad!) together and we set-up the video camera and told him we wanted to tell him something and we thought it'd be fun if it were a puzzle.  He took all the stuff out and was totally blank.  We said, "You're a kindergartner, you're a gymnast, you're a son, etc. etc. now you're going to be something else too!"  Blankness.  Finally, we just said it outright.  And he said, "Again?"  "Um, no, it's not like this happens all the time and dude, you weren't aware when it was you... so..."  Later, he said he had a clue (but not before that moment) but that he just didn't want to say it.  Moments later, he was chanting, "I'm going to be a big brother!  I'm going to be a big brother!"  So he just needed some time for the news to percolate.  He's also excited to find out whether it's going to be a boy or girl (he is rooting for boy).  Told MiL too, she said, "I've known since Christmas!"  She just knew, she said.  I asked if it was because I was a super porker/super flatulent.

About the Advil -- I've had a couple headaches since my BFP status that have been awful.  Usually, they are tension headaches and I can feel the source clustering on one of my shoulders.  Anyway, nothing helps -- Tylenol does diddly squat.  In the past, Advil would help.  A massage probably would though... but that's a pricey solution and requires a lot of finagling of the schedule.  So it's currently been 24 hours of headache with no relief.  Boo (yes, complaining, but not ungrateful).

Also still experiencing nightly wooziness... hopefully, it'll go away in about a week.  I'm counting 13 weeks as making the benchmark, not 12...

Hope everyone has a great week!  I'm ready to be retired or just really wealthy.  : )

My DH, the Poet

Very revealing of what DH is putting up with...

A night of wind blowing
Cozy we are
as if it were snowing
a meal of chicken (as good as steak)
under the covers
It's your wind that will break.