12 weeks today! Wow. I’m now starting belly pics and a weekly diary.
Marination Time: 12 Weeks
Size of baby: Little Bean is about half an ounce in weight and the size of a lime.
Total Weight Gain/Loss: about 3 lbs so far, and up 2 bra sizes… this is sort of fun for now, but I’m a wee bit scared to think of where I’ll end up!
Maternity Clothes: I started wearing some maternity jeans and pants on the weekends at Week 9 and was in my small collection of “bigger” pants from law school days plus regular skirts/dresses at work until just today. I’m rocking the Loft maternity elastic demi-panel trousers right now and LOVING them since I feel like I look less pregnant in maternity clothes than in more snugly fitting regular clothes. Tops and dresses are regular. T-minus 2.5 weeks or so until the cat’s out of the bag at work. My last first tri scan is right before Christmas at 13 weeks, and then we’re telling our extended families and close friends between Christmas and New Year’s.
Sex: We got a sneak peek and a guesstimate at 11 weeks during our evening at Prentice… we’ll wait to confirm it before we share with the world. We would be thrilled with either/doesn’t really matter to us, but being a planner there was no way I could delay the “surprise” until delivery! We’re already surprised with the sneak peek!
Movement: Not yet. Will this be creepy or cool when it starts up I wonder?
Belly button watch: Innie…and hoping it holds out this way as long as possible! I said adieu to my navel ring at about 8 weeks. After 11+ years with it and risking disownment by my dad to get it, the day I removed it was a sad day! (However, this was not an option.)
Sleep: I sleep just fine – sometimes I’m up once in the night to visit the bathroom.
What I miss: Staying up past 9pm, though my energy seems to be starting to come back this week finally.
Cravings: CHEESE. Oh.my.word. I cannot get enough dairy generally, and cheese and spicy foods have really done it for me. Not that big on sweets (though chocolate milk has been a go-to item these past two weeks – I had it maybe only 1x/year before being pregnant!).
Symptoms: My nausea is much better this past week. If I’m really tired or hungry I get woozy. Sore chest. Some aches/pains and huffing and puffing as I go up stairs (this started like a month ago – no kidding!).
Well what a last few weeks! News has trickled slowly out to three of my close friends, but only one on purpose. I swear I got backed into telling the other two – really! Must be all that wine I normally consume – my besties are suspicious! DM and my mom have stayed strong and not told anyone. I’m impressed!
We told DM’s parents and siblings over Thanksgiving. We used a sweet poem in a frame for his folks:
I do not have a face to see,
Or put inside a frame.
I do not have soft cheeks to kiss.
I don’t yet have a name.
Not yet can you hold my tiny hands,
Nor whisper in my ear.
It’s still too soon to sing a song,
Or cuddle me so near.
But all that will change come this June,
When they say I am due.
I am your newest grandchild;
And I can’t wait until I meet you!
All I ask between now and then
Is your love for me to grow.
I promise I’ll be worth the wait;
Just think of all the joy we’ll know!
So as you’re waiting patiently,
Please pray lots of prayers for me.
I cannot wait to be a part
Of this wonderful family!
Love, Little Bean
We told DM’s siblings by getting everyone together for a family picture on Thanksgiving night. DM was the photographer and said a few rounds of “Say Cheese!” while “testing” the camera, then said “Say DJ’s Pregnant!!” It was a cute and fun way to tell everyone.
Little Bean got his/her first family baby gift of “Goodnight, iPad” from Uncle S and Aunt K. Very appropriate considering LB’s tech parents (let’s be serious – this is DM all the way!).
DM’s sister, A, is letting me borrow Mayo’s Guide to Pregnancy – so far I like it, and I love how it is not overly alarming in tone – just the facts and balanced advice.
A week after Thanksgiving we met my folks and brother, E, in West Lafayette to tell E the good news. We did it at Spaggedi’s with “uncle” themed onsies (one girl, one boy). It was such a fun moment. My folks also hadn’t seen us yet since we told them the news, so it was a nice afternoon all around. They sent back the 100+ year old rocking chair from my Emmons side of the family for the future nursery and a special quilt made by my Great-Grandma May, also. I’ve been emotional just looking at those items and am excited to use them!
In other news, we had another peek at LB last night, and not by choice. I’m having the same issues as at about 4 and 7 weeks with the spotting, only worse this time around, plus some mild cramps. This time it all started after work on a Friday evening, naturally. But, thankfully all is well and LB looks great-decidedly more human now, with arms and legs! Just swimming around. We even got a really early sneak peek at what the sex might be, but while we have a clue it’s too early to confirm or share.
We got to see Prentice, where I’ll eventually deliver. While it was nice to see that it is a great facility, we’d like to not be at Prentice again for quite some time. We were lucky to be seen there – my midwife called us in while we were in the regular Northwestern ER waiting room.
Between the extra bloodwork in week 4-5, the early U/S at week 7, our regular scan in week 8, and now an U/S in week 11, this little guy or gal has demanded some attention for sure. We’re content not to see you again LB until our regularly scheduled appointment in 2 weeks, MKAY? Thanksverymuch.
In other news I feel like my morning sickness has been subsiding slowly this past week. Weeks 7-9 were the hardest, and 9-11 weren’t that great. Some days you couldn’t peel me up off the couch after 8pm.
Kate Middleton just announced she is expecting. OMG I wonder if our due dates will align?! Ha. I feel bad for her though. She’s still less than 12 weeks like us and had to announce early because of severe morning sickness and being admitted to the hospital. My mom has always been interested in Diana and the royals, so this obviously a fun detail for both of us.
We’re starting to get in the holiday spirit around here, slowly, very slowly.
So, our Little Bean “LB” is doing great. We had our official first tri scan today. His or her heart rate is around the 160s, and LB is measuring about 8 weeks 2 days or 8 weeks 4 days depending on the measurements. We are sticking with a June 28 due date.
Today I enjoyed a fab lunch out at Piccolo Sogno Due and a dinner out for a client gala at the Ritz Carlton. I’ve been surprised how I have not wanted any sweets or junk (says the gal who’d have a large coffee, chex mix and a twix for lunch some days. While this was not necessarily a lot of calories, it was a big fat zero on the nutritional scale, and definitely always included some serious sugar). Speaking of scales – I still show that I have lost a little weight, but after we got home from the gala dinner tonight I peeled off my suit dress and it was like, WHOA HI baby! There was this little pooch there that isn’t just a food baby! I’m just 8 weeks along today. I heard from friends that the pooch can be bigger at night at first, and it might not even be there tomorrow morning, but WOW. We’re in for it.
So after more spotting again this week, we were seen by the midwives for my first ultrasound. While it has been nerve wracking not knowing exactly what has been going on, we at least got something wonderful out of the slightly stressful situation. What a trip – there was no sound, but there was a little heart just beating away. DM came with me, and they assured us all looked good so far! Based on the measurement, I’m about 7 weeks 2 days along. This is not exactly what my timing would be based on how they try to count “officially,” but it is definitely what I expected based on my cycles. We’re due around that June 28 or June 29 time (my paternal grandfather, whom I never knew, Marvin’s, birthday).
Last night , when asked by DM if I wanted a hot dog, I responded, well, we’re supposed to limit the baby’s consumption of nitrates. DM replies, well then, don’t feed him any. So funny, that guy.
Also, Week 7 = nausea finally kicking in, apparently. For real. I thought I felt not-so-good at times the last couple of weeks. Um, that was nothing like this!! I feel like I’m on a BOAT. But where are my flippy floppies**?!?!
**Unfortunately this is not as great as asking “Why is my champagne hand, empty?” (see pic below), but “Where are my flippy floppies?” might become my new catchphrase.
BabyCenter tells me the bambino is a blueberry this week. At some point after we let the family in on this little secret I’ll probably start doing more complete Little Bean updates (“BumpDates?” too cheesy?).
And now that I’ve caught up on the events of October 13, I get to start blogging real time! Hurray!
So, for the first week after finding out we were pregnant, I had some spotting – not serious, but I had no idea what to expect and Googling is the worst. Luckily, after a nasty encounter with one receptionist at my new midwives’ office (“well you’re only four weeks and you’re a likely miscarriage, so they will not see you anyway” – SERIOUSLY?!), a nurse called me back from the office and scheduled me for monitoring my HCG and progesterone levels. I was, very honestly, just barely pregnant that week, but the numbers were rising appropriately, so it was worth the additional hassel to go in for blood draws.
We decided to go ahead and tell my folks about ten days after we found out our news, mostly for additional support for me. Since we won’t see them until December, we sent them a cute couple of pictures online of us and the tests.
I am now 6 weeks along! I have had some nausea, but mostly I am just sore. I’ve lost two pounds and gone up a bra size – so far, pregnancy is amazing ha! I’m sure Little Bean will make his or her debut by Christmastime, but for now no one’s the wiser.
I’ve already experienced some pregnancy brain. Oh my the forgetfulness, already. I forgot my laptop at home one morning and didn’t discover until I got to work. I also forgot and walked through airport security with a full bottle of water. I travel all the time! I am just a wee bit distracted I guess.
I am proud to say I survived a business trip with a partner just this past week. I avoided going through security with him with some lame excuse about wanting to shop before going to the gates, and I also avoided dinner with opposing counsel on our way out there (which would have been nothing but boozing), by taking a later flight down after the partner. I did need the time to do the extra work anyway.
Overall, I feel good. I am still working out with my regular Jillian Michaels’ tapes – just at my own pace since we’re not trying to get results. I feel strong.
I am tired by 10pm consistently and need about 7 1/2 and 9 hours a sleep a night. This is rare, since I was doing the 5-6 hours pattern during the week, with lots of caffeine to keep going as a general rule. I dropped caffeine cold turkey right when I found out, surprisingly with no ill effects.
I’m also HUNGRY.ALL.THE.TIME. I’m eating well though – lots of color and not a lot of junk. I’ve had a craving for steak, which has been very unusual. I also made my own steak one night, regardless of whether DM could join me for dinner, which I never do.
I signed up for those “your baby is…” emails. Baby Center tells me Little Bean is the size of a lentil. Delightful.
Well, if a pregnancy isn’t a prompt to really get into blogging, I’m not sure what is. For years I’ve followed blogs of all kinds – wedding planning, home decor, cooks, moms, and travel. DM and I have blogged some of our travels in the past, but we’re hoping to do something a bit more anonymously, with some of our travel highlights, and also document our more regular, every day life together.
On October 13, 2012, we found out we were expecting our first baby, dubbed “Little Bean,” sometime in early summer 2013. I’ve always wanted an online journal, so no time like the present, right?
I’m DJ, and my husband is DM. We’re early thirty somethings (VERY early for me – I just turned 31) living in Chicago, IL. We married in the summer of 2009 at Notre Dame – our alma mater (more stories about all of that to come at a later time….along with an explanation of our choice of blog URL/name).
So, after a little more than three years of marriage, we decided no time like the present to give parenthood a shot. We’d been “open” to a baby for, oh, about three months, maybe, kind of/but not really, and “really tried” for a baby for ONE month. We are Catholic, but we had some priorities involving career and travel ahead of trying for kiddos. Fertility is a something that I never took for granted and always wondered if everything would work properly due to some fits and starts during my young adult life. We are thankful to be so so lucky this soon (and not without nearly two years of “planning” to get to this point…also another post for another time). We are also thankful we had a fair amount of hesitation to get started though – otherwise we’d likely be pregnant with baby number 3 by now!!
Any whooo, so, we decided we were going to try for a baby. We go to a wedding in San Francisco for the weekend on October 11. It is a Sunday wedding, with plans to drink at a Notre Dame game watch all afternoon on the Saturday before. Of course I had a huge bag of pregnancy tests waiting for me at our home in Chicago – the cheap ones – because boy was I prepared to try for a while. I wanted to be ready, and I, being frugal, was not about to pay a ton on silly pregnancy tests!
Instead, I wake up in our hotel, and know immediately that I need to go to the nearest Walgreens to buy and take a (comparatively very expensive) test before boozing all day. And it was EARLY – like one week post conception/one week before AF was due EARLY. But, I felt different, hot, sore, etcetera. And Google officially let me know I “might” be pregnant, so out to Walgreens we went.
While at Walgreens I was super glad to see a line of 30 people deep to wait to check out with my tests. Ok, so only 10 people were in line, but still. I felt like a teenager with my contraband, though that is perfectly ridiculous. I made sure my wedding bands were showing. DM waited at the front of the store to let me wait it out on my own. I picked up a chocolate bar to awkwardly hold along with the tests. Why not right? I thought I might need the chocolate.
After our drug store run we picked up breakfast at a tea cafe, and then had a nice moment eating it in the sun before going back inside the hotel to do more work. Unforunately this wedding weekend was mostly a working weekend for us. The night before we’d been up until midnight working, and settled for thai takeout and a couple of drinks from the hotel bar.
I immediately took the test and stayed in the hotel bathroom while it developed the faintest, but distinct, second pink line. WOWZA. I walked out of the bathroom to share the news and ask DM how he felt. His response: “Tired.” HA! In his defense – we were and ARE generally tired these days. I’m an attorney, he’s a consultant, and he’s getting his MBA part time on evenings and weekends to boot. He started that process in summer 2010 and will finish in March 2013 – not too soon!
We arguably spent the rest of the day in disbelief while I’m wondering how I’m going to keep this under wraps for the weekend (and oh, the next three months). We realize we aren’t really sure of the exact date when “it” could have happened, but what do you expect when you actually start trying, right?
We went on to have a relatively low key day. We watched ND beat Stanford in a close one, and then had a nice dinner out, just the two of us, at Commonwealth in San Francisco. The food was awesome – poached oysters, octopus, radish salad with “ancient greens,” wagyu beef, grape sorbet, and a snickers ice cream bar delight for dessert. DM got the wine pairing, and I enjoyed baby bird sips of each as I bid adeiu to my drinking days. We took a couple of fun pictures of me getting ready to go out to dinner. I love those skinny jeans – SIGH!
On Sunday we had the wedding, and while it was likely in my head, I felt overheated, or nauseous, or starving alternately all day long. We were becoming less shocked and more excited. I took another test. Gee, same result! I also continued to puzzle over my cycle days and when the magic actually happened. To which DM joked “maybe its twins and that’s why we know so early – y’know, the double tap.” YIKES. Twins hadn’t even crossed my mind – I started to laugh so hard I ended up crying.
Parents and elders, TMI alert – you may want to look away/skip to the next paragraph now. When trying to figure out how far along I might be, we looked at our past few date nights and chuckled that one night we ate at the Pump Room, a few days after my 31st birthday. We also ate out one night at Piccolo Sogno (“little dream”). We’d done a good job of scheduling fun date nights for this whole babymaking agenda – but really, we were expecting to wine and dine for much longer!
At any rate, the wedding on Sunday night was perfect – the couple are close friends and their ceremony was so heartfelt. We had a great time, and have an awesome weekend memory of how we found out about this new adventure. Due to the Sunday night wedding we traveled on Monday back home. I called and made my initial appointment with my regular healthcare provider for first thing on Tuesday. I paced back and forth at the airport when talking to parents and catching up about our weekend. My one thought in all of this then and now has been – how in the heck are we going to keep this quiet for another six weeks? Hence, the blog. I’m excited to use this for a real-time journal of what we’re going through.
