Pregnancy is soooooooo SEXY!

This is amusing , but perhaps (well, definitely) TMI, so read at your own risk!

First of all, sorry for my long absence, but Hurricane Ike has certainly put a major damper on my internet access. We evacuated for the storm and didn't return home until our power came back on yesterday. We had relatively little damage, but many other relatives and friends had a lot--some even completely lost their homes and everything in them. It's very sad, but we will help each other get through it. If you are the praying type, please pray for all who have suffered down here on the Gulf Coast of Texas.

Now for the nasty part. And I can't stress this enough--TMI ALERT! This story is included strictly for the enjoyment of my pregnancy/mommy blog-oriented readers. Over the past month, I have had increasingly bad pain in my groin area. If you remember, I thought a while back that I might have a hernia, but my doctor said it was probably just bad round ligament pain, a very common pregnancy ailment. I went back to see him yesterday, and I have now developed what's called a vulvar varicosity, which is a nice way of saying I have a gigantic varicose vein in a VERY private place!!! The doc says it will probably go away after I give birth, but in the meantime, I have to wear this lovely contraption called a "V2 supporter." It looks like a giant jock strap and is basically a compression garment designed to squeeze my nether regions into submission for the next three months. It is NOT sexy, but I have to admit the pain is relieved when I am wearing it. The doctor said he has only had to remove two of these veins from people in the past sixteen years since they usually resolve themselves, but he said I would be number three if I didn't wear this god-awful thing until the baby comes. Ugh.

So anyway, if Billy didn't find the actual ailment repulsive enough, now I have to wear this massive elastic chastity belt on top of it. Poor guy! I am one hot mama, let me tell you!

Look at the top of the screen!

I finally passed the halfway mark on my pregnancy timeline at the top of the screen! What once looked like a Sea Monkey now looks like an actual baby. Pretty cool.

Actually, I passed the halfway mark of my PREGNANCY two weeks ago, but it's kind of nifty to see it illustrated in living color for the whole world to see.

Just thought I'd point it out so someone else noticed it, too.

Starting to feel the baby...

During the past few days, I have begun to feel the baby move every now and then. It started Monday, I think, and I wasn't sure at first, but now I am. It's a little earlier than I felt Max, but I think that's normal the second time around. Billy still won't be able to feel it for a while, but I am very excited. It's a relief to finally be able to feel some movement, but it will also be more stressful now when I DON'T feel it for a while!

BTW, for those of you who didn't know, the results of our nuchal translucency (early Downs) test came back GREAT! The chances of any chromosomal abnormality are so low that my OB is not recommending any other testing of that sort, which is good since I'm sort of an old lady as far as pregnancy is concerned. Every time I hear someone at the doctor's office mention my AMA ("advanced maternal age"), I look around like, "HUH? Did my grandmother just walk in?" It's so weird.

One last bit of news: we have our "big" ultrasound on July 21, and that's when we will find out the baby's sex. I can't wait to stop calling it he/she or it! Start placing your bets now and stay tuned...

A Brief Cardiac Episode

So yesterday I went to the OB for my fourteen-week checkup. The very first thing they always do after getting my urine and vitals is check the baby's heartbeat using the Doppler. Well, I lay there for what seemed like an ETERNITY as the nurse probed and prodded my belly with the machine. She didn't miss a spot; she covered every inch of my upper and lower abdomen SEVERAL TIMES, and still...NO HEARTBEAT. She tapped the machine against her palm and tried again. Finally, after at least five minutes and a lot of grimacing and head-shaking, she said, "I can't find it. Nothing. But I hate this machine...let me go find another one."

So again I lay there for another infinite amount of time while I waited for her to go do whatever it was she was going to do. I just KNEW she was going to get my doctor so he could be the one to break the devastating news. But when she came back, she was still alone and she did have another Doppler.

"How far along are you again?" she asked.

"Fourteen weeks."

"You're just at that weird stage where the baby could be anywhere in there--really high or really low. Let's try again. Can you pull the top of your shorts down a little farther?"

This time she probed what seemed like the top of my thigh, but sure enough, PAY DIRT. A good, strong 155 bpm heartbeat. I have never been so scared and then so relieved in all my life. WHEW.

It's official!

Exactly 13 weeks and 2 days gestation marks the end of the first trimester, so I am now officially in my second tri--YAY FOR ME! Although every passing day has made me feel a little more secure, I am really starting to relax now. I'm still waiting on the results of last week's nuchal translucency test, and I have another OB appointment on Friday; hopefully, I'll get lots of good news and be able to totally enjoy our vacation to Florida next week.

Butch at 12 weeks...

Okay, it's not REALLY Butch--it's actually a picture of a twelve week old fetus I found on WebMD--but it's better than any of the crappy pictures I got at my ultrasound yesterday. I went for my nuchal translucency (early Down's) test, which includes among other things a nice, high-def level 2 ultrasound. Although the tech was not allowed to tell me the sex even if she saw it, she made sure to get me a good between-the-legs shot and hold it while I looked. I pretty clearly saw a "protrusion" that looked very similar to every ultrasound I ever saw of Max, but I still have to wait a few weeks to find out for sure. I go to OGA at Women's Hospital, and they have a policy not to say a word until eighteen weeks. Oh well...I don't care one bit either way this time--I just want to be able to start SHOPPING!!! And...as my friend Sherri from WebMD said, "Butch would have been a weird name for a girl, anyway."

I am feeling MUCH better this week, just fat. Of course, Max's Mommy and Me swimming lessons started this week, so I have to get into a bathing suit every day in front of a million people. I feel like I should announce to everyone that I am pregnant, not just pudgy and out of shape. I saw a t-shirt the other day that said "With bump--NOT plump!" and I want it!

The Obligatory Update

I call it "obligatory" only because I feel like I need to report something, yet I feel guilty because I have so little to say. After all the drama of the past several months, I have been at a loss for things to write about. We have really just been trying to enjoy the slower pace of life and focus on all of our blessings.

Max has been his usual delightful and entertaining self. Here he is in his latest costume; I am calling this one "drag-queen pirate."

He is thoroughly excited about being a big brother, and he thinks we should name the new baby either "Otto" or "Firestar"--at least those are his top choices this week.

Speaking of the new baby, we had another ultrasound recently, and everything is progressing perfectly. This is a ten-week picture, and you can see that (s)he is really starting to look like a baby. (S)he even seems to be sucking a thumb, although the doctor said that is still physically impossible.

I promise I will get my butt in gear and post some really good pics and interesting anecdotes soon; right now, I am just trying to relax and get through the end of this pukey first trimester. Love to everybody...

UPDATE: When Max saw his picture on the blog this morning, he said, "That's me! I'm a lady pirate!"

Introducing Butch "the Bean" Rearick!

Can I just say, WHEW!!! I can finally breathe a little easier. I am exactly 5wk4days, and Butch the Bean is measuring a healthy 5wk5days. It is still so early that we couldn't HEAR the heartbeat, but we could SEE it--steadily pumping away. I'll have another u/s in 10 days and my RE said we'll definitely be able to hear something then.

He also reassured me that even at this early date, my chances of a miscarriage have declined to less than 10%, and after 10 more days, they'll be below 5%.

Needless to say, Billy and I are suddenly feeling a lot better about things. Now, as if you can actually see ANYTHING in these pictures, here is Butch:

OK, Now That I Can Breathe...

I can post an update about what's been going on the past few weeks. Talk about DRAMA...but nothing having to do with fertility/pregnancy/giving birth has EVER been normal in my life!

As most of you know, I cheated and POAS on Tuesday, April 10, a day before my scheduled beta test. I got a clear BFP, so I called Dr. Dunn's office to see if I could go ahead and come in for the blood test. Gloria said come on; no problem.

So I drove up there with Max and Teri and gave my blood. We decided to go over to the zoo and walk around while we waited for my results. I was feeling kind of crampy, but I didn't think much of it, because I had felt that way for several days and just attributed it to early pregnancy. However, when I went to the bathroom about an hour into our walk, I was panicked to discover I was (perhaps TMI) gushing blood--LOTS of it. I immediately started shaking and crying and trying to call Gloria (my nurse) from the bathroom stall. Unfortunately, she was at lunch, and the on-duty nurse couldn't tell me much more than 1) they had not yet received the results of my blood test; and 2) I needed to get the hell out of that zoo as fast as possible and get home to bed.

Teri took off and summoned the zoo shuttle to come pick us up, so thankfully, I didn't have to try to walk the mile out of there. I was in a total daze all the way home, certain that I was miscarrying; in my mind, the whole thing was over before it had ever really started, and I was devastated. However, Gloria called me back as we were walking into the house and told me my beta number was 112 (a good, strong number for that early); and she was surprisingly unconcerned about the bleeding. She told me that it's totally common, especially in women who have had as much "work done" as I have and not to worry. She said just take it easy over the weekend and come back in for another beta on Monday. Remember, this was Thursday--THURSDAY!!!--so this was much easier said than done.

Billy and I decided to go out to the lake for the weekend as we had previously planned. We figured I could relax just as easily out there as I could at home, if not moreso. I stayed on self-imposed bedrest most of the weekend, and while I continued to have spotting for the next three days, I didn't have any more major bleeding. I was still convinced, however, that I was having a miscarriage, despite the fact that I continued to get BFP's on the HPT's I was taking every morning. I know those home tests detect HCG at around 50, so I knew my number could have dropped and I would still get a positive. Something about POAS was reassuring, though, so I continued to do it. It was all I had, really, at that point.

On Monday the 14th (my BIRTHDAY, FGS!) I went back for my second beta test. This time I got the callback as I was sitting at Pappa's Seafood for my birthday lunch with my family. The news was still worrisome: my beta had only risen to 246. The good news was that it had risen, but it SHOULD have been up around 400 by that time and it wasn't. Things still did not look promising. And Gloria STILL could not tell me much other than to come back Wednesday for yet another test.

FINALLY...my beta came back at 620 on Wednesday! Gloria said everything looked good, and I could stop worrying so much and start getting excited about this pregnancy. Billy and I were so relieved that we both cried. It was just SUCH a relief, I can't even describe it.

We will have our first ultrasound on Tuesday, and I will feel much better after that. If everything is going well, we should be able to see the baby AND a heartbeat, which will make it all seem much more real. I'll post an update (and, hopefully, a picture) then...

Love to all!!!