When we first found out we were pregnant, the second trimester seemed so far off. Now that we're at 14 weeks, we're ready to start part two of this journey. It's been quite a process, but I've learned a lot in the last few months.
Here are some of the things that I experienced, learned or was surprised by in my first trimester:
Exercise: Pre-pregnancy, I was usually running three times a week, about 6-7 miles or so at a time. I also alternated the running with using the eliptical machine at the gym and doing some light weightlifting three times a week. My doctor, baby books and the internet all say that if you've already established an exercise routine, it is OK to continue exercising throughout your pregnancy, but it definietly takes on a different form. The biggest change is that I just physically can't run as fast or push myself as much. Even if I wanted to, I don't think I could run 6.5-7 miles in an hour on the treadmill, which is what I was doing before. There are also rules about what your heart rate should be, how warm you get and staying hydrated. I am still doing as much as I can (I read today in "What to Expect When You're Expecting" that babies whose mother's exercised tested higher on intelligence tests!), but I know when to stop. It will be interesting to see if and when that happens.
Eating: I was really suprised to hear that the saying "You're eating for two" isn't really true...or maybe I was just disappointed I couldn't sit down with a gallon of ice cream and a spoon, guilt-free. Up until this point, I wasn't supposed to take in any more calories than I had been pre-pregnancy. But there were days that I was just hungry! I haven't had any major cravings for particular foods, but I can sense myself leaning toward salty snacks and carbs. I think that's mostly because I don't usually eat a lot of those especially during the day. Hey, what baby wants, baby gets, in moderation of course. I was also really surprised at the long list of what you can't eat and how I should really diversify my diet and not just eat the same old salad every day. But now, I'm supposed to be eating 300 more calories a day, which really isn't that much when you think about it. I'll probably start with few slices a bread and a glass of milk throughout the day.
Morning sickness: I was mentally prepared to have this symptom, but luckily for me, I really didn't. During week six, I was constantly nauseous all day, every day, but never threw up. I also had little desire to eat. That was short-lived and since then, there's been a few flashes of nausea here and there, but not too much. I will consider myself extremely lucky and cross my fingers that this doesn't show up later!
Fatigue: This has been the biggie. I think it's safe to say that for awhile I was sleeping in the living room chair by 8 p.m. every night. Chris would usually shake his head and say, "Just go to bed." I still get pretty wiped out in the evenings, but I have been able to stay up until 10 p.m. a few nights in the last week, which feels like a pretty major accomplishment.
My appearance: The last few weeks have been a pretty big eye-opener into what kinds of changes my body is going to go through. The baby is supposedly about the size of a lemon right now, which would explain why my stomach is starting to stick out and my pants are really tight. So far I've been able to get away with my normal pants, some being phased out, but I think that I'm going to have to move on to the Belly Band for help shortly.
As we move into the second trimester, there are a whole crop of new things to learn. Not just the increased calories, but no lying on my back for long periods of time (I got the weird looking pillow to help me do this while I sleep) and the most exciting thing is that by the end, we should start being able to feel the baby!
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
My how I've grown
When the nurse first told me about the test that is offered to pregnant women that checks for Down's Syndrome and other genetic disorders, she said it would be a quick ultrasound to get a measure of the back of baby's neck, but that you would at least get a peek at the baby.
Boy was she wrong! We got a whole 40 minute session with the ultrasound tech, mostly because they need baby in a very specific position to get the measurement and of course baby's don't cooperate very well sometimes. So we got to see Baby Steiny flipping around, crossing it's legs, opening and closing it's mouth, putting it's arm up and down (maybe even sucking it's thumb!) and turning it's back to us. She finally got the measurements she needed and we got some cute pictures of our darling little one.
We had an ultrasound done at 6 weeks with the reproductive specialist, who wanted to make sure everything looked OK before he sent us back to my regular OB-GYN. But at that time, baby was just a 4 millimeter blob, but it was still our little blob. But now, it looks like a real person in there!
See for yourself...
Boy was she wrong! We got a whole 40 minute session with the ultrasound tech, mostly because they need baby in a very specific position to get the measurement and of course baby's don't cooperate very well sometimes. So we got to see Baby Steiny flipping around, crossing it's legs, opening and closing it's mouth, putting it's arm up and down (maybe even sucking it's thumb!) and turning it's back to us. She finally got the measurements she needed and we got some cute pictures of our darling little one.
We had an ultrasound done at 6 weeks with the reproductive specialist, who wanted to make sure everything looked OK before he sent us back to my regular OB-GYN. But at that time, baby was just a 4 millimeter blob, but it was still our little blob. But now, it looks like a real person in there!
See for yourself...
Hello world! Here I am all curled up inside my momma.
Already turning it's back on mom and dad, oh boy!
Here's my pretty face! Can you see my little nose and mouth?
If you couldn't see them before, the nice ultrasound lady marked them here.
And finally, my mom and dad's favorite one. Just a little wave hello! You can see my fingers!!
The ultrasound lady said everything looked good. We saw the heartbeat and she measured baby. According to her measurements, we're back to my first due date of July 26 (It got pushed back to the 30th based on the measurements at the 6 week ultrasound). So I guess we can just expect baby sometime at the end of July.
Chris and I both agreed that seeing that ultrasound was the most amazing experience we've ever had. But I'm thinking we're going to have a lot more of these types of experience pretty soon. I for one can't wait to feel that little one doing all those moves! Funny to think that he or she is already flipping and kicking in there, but I have no idea.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
"You can't always get what you want"
I of course do not want this to be a sad, "poor me" post, but if we're going to have a blog about Baby Steinhoff, I should probably say a little something about our year-and-a-half journey to get to this point.
When we got married, we had a couple friends that said, "Don't have kids right away, travel and enjoy each other for awhile." We agreed that we weren't ready for kids right away, but we knew that we wanted them eventually. After a two-and-a-half years, we started to discuss the possibility of expanding our family. I was training for a half-marathon at the time, so after the race seemed like a good time to schedule a doctor appointment and start the process.
I went off birth control and knew that it might take a few months for my system to regulate itself after being on medication for a long time, so when nothing really happened for a few months, I wasn't concerned. I read online that if three months passes, you aren't pregnant and your system isn't doing what it's supposed to, you should call your doctor. I did and he wasn't too concerned either and put me on some medication to kind of "kick-start" my system. That didn't work, so we started the conversation that I might not be ovulating, which means that I might have trouble getting pregnant. My doctor told me that this happens to a lot of people (and in the following months, I started hearing about a lot of people in similar situations) and that there was nothing in my medical history that would be causing this, so he felt pretty sure that we could find a solution.
I started a regimen of pills and would go in each month for a blood test to see if they got my hormone levels to a point where I ovulated. It was usually a "no," but we had one month where I was pretty close to the correct level, so I felt like I was making progress. After a few more months of pills and tests and no baby, the doctor felt he needed to look into things a little more. I had a procedure done where he checked my tubes for blockages (there were none) and did an ultrasound to make sure everything looked ok (it did). I took a different medication that month and still nothing, so at that point, my doctor decided it was best to pass me on to a reproductive specialist.
Chris and I met with the specialist, who went over both of our medical histories, family histories and talked about what we've been doing up to that point. He looked over everything and said that he saw no apparent reason this should be happening to me, and if my only problem was that I was not ovulating, he could make me ovulate.
The specialist decided to keep me on the same medication I had taken the last month, but changed up the dosage. I went in for a blood test later in the month, and not only had I ovulated, my numbers were above average. I could hardly believe it! He told me that if nothing happened in the next few weeks to take a pregnancy test and call him with the result either way.
I got to the date that he had set as a deadline and nothing had happened. I didn't let myself get my hopes up (I was still just really excited that I had even ovulated at this point), but took the pregnancy test per his instructions. As the two lines appeared, I was extremely shocked. I called the doctor and he had me come in that afternoon to confirm the results. His test came back positive as well, so I guess I could really believe it was true. And now 8 weeks later (we were 5 weeks at that point), we're well on our way to a baby!
I wanted to share the story for two reasons - one, it helps me to talk about it and two, to hopefully help anyone else who is going through the same thing. It can be a little overwhelming and scary, just because so much of it is unknown and out of your control. I found it helpful to hear from others who were going through similar situations.
In the end, we just followed the process, knew that we weren't in a rush (we kept telling ourselves that even if it took us five years, we'd still only be in our early 30s) and the doctors always reassured us that especially since we were both young and healthy, there were plenty of options.
At one point through this whole ordeal, I heard the Rolling Stones song with the lyrics, "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need." I thought that this summed up our situation quite well. We had to wait a lot longer for a baby than we had originally had planned, but in the end, it was a learning experience, made us more patient (mostly me on this one) and will give us an even greater appreciation for the little baby we'll get in July!
When we got married, we had a couple friends that said, "Don't have kids right away, travel and enjoy each other for awhile." We agreed that we weren't ready for kids right away, but we knew that we wanted them eventually. After a two-and-a-half years, we started to discuss the possibility of expanding our family. I was training for a half-marathon at the time, so after the race seemed like a good time to schedule a doctor appointment and start the process.
I went off birth control and knew that it might take a few months for my system to regulate itself after being on medication for a long time, so when nothing really happened for a few months, I wasn't concerned. I read online that if three months passes, you aren't pregnant and your system isn't doing what it's supposed to, you should call your doctor. I did and he wasn't too concerned either and put me on some medication to kind of "kick-start" my system. That didn't work, so we started the conversation that I might not be ovulating, which means that I might have trouble getting pregnant. My doctor told me that this happens to a lot of people (and in the following months, I started hearing about a lot of people in similar situations) and that there was nothing in my medical history that would be causing this, so he felt pretty sure that we could find a solution.
I started a regimen of pills and would go in each month for a blood test to see if they got my hormone levels to a point where I ovulated. It was usually a "no," but we had one month where I was pretty close to the correct level, so I felt like I was making progress. After a few more months of pills and tests and no baby, the doctor felt he needed to look into things a little more. I had a procedure done where he checked my tubes for blockages (there were none) and did an ultrasound to make sure everything looked ok (it did). I took a different medication that month and still nothing, so at that point, my doctor decided it was best to pass me on to a reproductive specialist.
Chris and I met with the specialist, who went over both of our medical histories, family histories and talked about what we've been doing up to that point. He looked over everything and said that he saw no apparent reason this should be happening to me, and if my only problem was that I was not ovulating, he could make me ovulate.
The specialist decided to keep me on the same medication I had taken the last month, but changed up the dosage. I went in for a blood test later in the month, and not only had I ovulated, my numbers were above average. I could hardly believe it! He told me that if nothing happened in the next few weeks to take a pregnancy test and call him with the result either way.
I got to the date that he had set as a deadline and nothing had happened. I didn't let myself get my hopes up (I was still just really excited that I had even ovulated at this point), but took the pregnancy test per his instructions. As the two lines appeared, I was extremely shocked. I called the doctor and he had me come in that afternoon to confirm the results. His test came back positive as well, so I guess I could really believe it was true. And now 8 weeks later (we were 5 weeks at that point), we're well on our way to a baby!
I wanted to share the story for two reasons - one, it helps me to talk about it and two, to hopefully help anyone else who is going through the same thing. It can be a little overwhelming and scary, just because so much of it is unknown and out of your control. I found it helpful to hear from others who were going through similar situations.
In the end, we just followed the process, knew that we weren't in a rush (we kept telling ourselves that even if it took us five years, we'd still only be in our early 30s) and the doctors always reassured us that especially since we were both young and healthy, there were plenty of options.
At one point through this whole ordeal, I heard the Rolling Stones song with the lyrics, "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need." I thought that this summed up our situation quite well. We had to wait a lot longer for a baby than we had originally had planned, but in the end, it was a learning experience, made us more patient (mostly me on this one) and will give us an even greater appreciation for the little baby we'll get in July!
Sunday, January 22, 2012
13 weeks
It's hard to believe that I am 13 weeks today and the second trimester is almost here! It really does seem like just yesterday I was staring at those two lines on a piece of plastic, not really believing it could be true. But here we are - happy, healthy and ready to keep growing!
Here's the latest baby stats:
13 weeks today (1/22/12)
Heartbeat heard loud and clear by mom and dad (and Dr. Wust) on 1/16/12
Size (according to the internet/baby books): 3 inches long, or about the size of a medium shrimp
Mom's pants: Fitting pretty tight, but not completely out just yet
Dad's projects: Painted the nursery, painted decorations for the walls
Next appointment: A quick ultrasound and blood test as part of a sequential scan (for Down's Syndrome and some other things) on 1/25/12, next full dr. appointment 2/20/12
While July seems pretty far away yet, I have a sneaking suspicion that the next seven months are going to by quick!
Here's the latest baby stats:
13 weeks today (1/22/12)
Heartbeat heard loud and clear by mom and dad (and Dr. Wust) on 1/16/12
Size (according to the internet/baby books): 3 inches long, or about the size of a medium shrimp
Mom's pants: Fitting pretty tight, but not completely out just yet
Dad's projects: Painted the nursery, painted decorations for the walls
Next appointment: A quick ultrasound and blood test as part of a sequential scan (for Down's Syndrome and some other things) on 1/25/12, next full dr. appointment 2/20/12
While July seems pretty far away yet, I have a sneaking suspicion that the next seven months are going to by quick!
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Welcome to the Baby Steiny blog!
Hello blog world!
If you're visiting this page, I hope it is because you are a friend or family member of ours who wants to keep up-to-date with the progress of our first child, due July 30. I will try my best to update this page frequently, since I know I like to see what's going on with other people's pregnancies and if you're here, you do too!
Why a blog?
I'm totally stealing the idea from friends and family members whose blogs I follow. It's a nice, easy way to share information and pictures, especially for those who are far away. Plus, I've heard keeping a baby journal is a good thing to do, so here's a web-based way for me to do it. Finally, as a writer by trade, I love doing this kind of stuff!
Why Baby Steiny?
Well, it is of course a spin-off of our last name, Steinhoff. Chris has had the nickname of "Steiny" for a long time and since getting married, some of our friends refer to me as "Mrs. Steiny" so it was an easy nickname for our baby too.
If you're visiting this page, I hope it is because you are a friend or family member of ours who wants to keep up-to-date with the progress of our first child, due July 30. I will try my best to update this page frequently, since I know I like to see what's going on with other people's pregnancies and if you're here, you do too!
Why a blog?
I'm totally stealing the idea from friends and family members whose blogs I follow. It's a nice, easy way to share information and pictures, especially for those who are far away. Plus, I've heard keeping a baby journal is a good thing to do, so here's a web-based way for me to do it. Finally, as a writer by trade, I love doing this kind of stuff!
Why Baby Steiny?
Well, it is of course a spin-off of our last name, Steinhoff. Chris has had the nickname of "Steiny" for a long time and since getting married, some of our friends refer to me as "Mrs. Steiny" so it was an easy nickname for our baby too.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)