Winding Down Week 7

We're winding down Week 7 and Monday will bring Week 8 which apparently is equal to the size of a kidney bean. Every week that goes by brings more excitement and also calm that it seems to be a normal pregnancy. SSG discovered a store, Destination Maternity, that actually offers free prenatal yoga which seems crazy because well, nothing is for free! We like free. They have a class on Saturday mornings so she may try it this weekend. She used to do yoga a lot but it's been a while. I think once she gets back into it she'll really enjoy it.

SSG continues to be completely wiped out, gets queasy, and sometimes barfs. Not every day but it still occurs. She's finding that a lot of sleep and making sure she gets lots of protein seems to make a big difference. This means bed at 8:00. Any later and she's a mess.

Bluebie also has a new safe and roomie set of wheels waiting for her/him. My lease on my Honda CR-V is up and after much number crunching, a few test drives, and discussion SSG and I decided to go a little bigger. We are picking up my new 2009 Toyota Highlander today after work. I've seen the amount of baby gear that people need! Plus add a dog and his gear and well you have a full car. We are anticipating lots of trips to NH and her parent's house with the baby. I'm not by any means saying a mid-size SUV is necessary and people do what they can but for us, this is the car that we were comfortable with. We wanted a super-safe, reliable car and well you can't go wrong with a Toyota or a Honda for that matter. I've seen what happens to small cars when an SUV hits them...it isn't often pretty. Don't hate me because I drive SUVs...I swear I don't hate the earth!

Lastly, the parent front, as in giving them the news. To some I'm sure it's crazy that we have yet to tell them. For me, I wanted to wait until the ultrasound which is a week from today. The plan is to have dinner with my parents next Friday night because they'll be down in MA. I think we will also tell SSG's parents next weekend as well. It will be the very end of week 8, almost week 9 so it seems like a good time. I'm pretty sure all will be excited but there is still a slight worry for me. Telling our parents that we were getting married certainly wasn't met with complete excitement and jubilation initially. They all eventually got on board but it was hard at first to hear that SSG's mom was "disappointed" at first or that my mom didn't quite have the same excitement as when my straight sister got married. Just goes with the territory I suppose but we're hoping for the best.

Snow Day!

Today I am home for a snow day. It is a much needed day off as I am really tired and any extra rest I can get I will take. Even if it means that I will be going to school until almost July. Shazam had to go to work today which sucks I would much prefer she be at home with me and not driving in the mess. The puppy is snuggled in with me on the couch and I should do some school work today if I can get some motivation. Right now I am spending my day watching law and order re-runs and looking at baby stuff. Since we are not finding out the gender of the baby I am in search of cool gender neutral bedding and other items. Since green is my favorite color this actually works well for me. Here are some of the sets that I am liking this week.

Elephant Stitch BeddingWillow
Green Dots Modern Elephant

As for cribs I am really liking this crib from BrU. It is modern but reasonably priced. The reviews seem good and the wood and white will match well with the built in shelves in the extra bedroom. I also like the drawer on the bottom for extra storage.

Tired

So I made it through the weekend and today at school without hurling which is great. I think I am managing my nausea better and I am more rested after the weekend. This whole making a human being thing seems to be very energy sapping (who knew). I have been struggling to get enough sleep and really I don't think I could ever get enough. If I am up past 9 these days I am really struggling. Today I went in to say good bye to Shazam and I fell asleep with my coat on, when I put my head down for a second I was out. So I am going to bed early and catching naps when I can. Hopefully as the weeks go by I will feel a bit more peppy.

Well we are in week 7 and the embryo is the size of a blueberry so we are calling it bluebie seahorse this week. I joked yesterday that all my children have tails right now. I am hoping that my third grows out of the tail stage and also has less fur. Here is a picture of a sample embryo at 7 weeks. Not so much of a sea horse this week!

A Little Bit of This and That

Not too much to report but we've been informed we are blogging slackers so I wanted to write something! At this point SSG is pretty much exhausted and in between exhaustion she's barfing. It's been in the morning mostly while at home but yesterday it waited until she was at school which as you can image is not ultra convenient. She was upset that she threw up her clementine. I feel horrible for her and all I can do is offer a saltine cracker, which seems kind of lame. She's taking it in stride though, doesn't complain, and knows it's all so we can have what we've dreamed of, which is a beautiful baby. I think it also is a good sign for us that all is going as scheduled and seems to be by the book.  Week 6 is the start of nausea and vomiting and literally on Monday, day #1 of Week 6 she was hustling to the bathroom. We are definitely looking forward to the ultrasound on 1/6 and seeing the doctor on 1/9 but we have a couple of weeks before those happen.

As for me, well I've been obsessively doing some number crunching on how this is all going to financially work for us and I've been grateful that I leave with a job every day. Long story short, the company I work for is floundering, and I've survived MANY lay-offs. I'm not sure how long I can hold on.  It would be insanely stressful to lose my job with a baby on the way, my car lease is up March 4th so I need to get a new car, and SSG's car lease is up in November so we will need to take care of a car for her. It's a really financially tight year so I need to stay on top of everything. The good news is we just paid off my credit card (mostly wedding stuff) so we are completely credit card free. Big relief. We wanted to go away in April for like 4 days for our 1st Anniversary but I don't think it's going to happen. Just too much going on in 2009 but we'll see. I'm not ready to fully close the door on that.

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Quick story about my 7 year old niece, Allison.  SSG, my mom, my sister, and I surprised my niece for her birthday by taking her on Monday to the American Girls store near us in MA. My sister bought her a doll (Julie) and we had dinner at the AG Bistro.  We had a great girls day. I may be a bit biased but my niece is truly something special. She has this amazing personality and has such great, healthy confidence that I hope she retains as she gets older. She's always been such a good, happy, pleasant kid. I testament to my sister and brother-in-law for sure with a little luck thrown in. 

So SSG and I drop my mom, my sister, and my niece at their car. Allison gets in her booster seat and as we are saying our goodbyes she says with the utmost sincerity, "This was my best day ever!" It was one of my best days ever too. We had so much fun. I got to spend the day with my favorite females in my life.

 

First Appointment

Shazam and I had our first appointment at the ob today. It was really great. We met with the nurse and she was super nice and helpful. I am feeling really good about our choice so far. I meet with the ob in 2 weeks and am looking forward to meeting her and making sure sesame is healthy and moving along. The nurse also made an ultrasound appointment for us a few days before we see the Dr. She had to give me a diagnosis to make sure insurance will pay for it. I now have "long" cycles and therefore need an early ultrasound (30 days is long right??). Shazam and I are really looking forward to it. It will be an internal one so that is not very exciting but if we get to see sesame then I am game. They took my health history and answered any questions we had then we had some blood and urine tests. We had a 7:30 appointment and I just made it to my second period class (ok I was a little late).

Now that we have our due date 9/14/2009 and our fetal age 6 weeks 2 days I thought some of you would like to see what sesame looks like this week. ( of course sesame is much cuter than the example embryo!)

For all you on pregnancy symptom watch you will be happy to hear that I seem to be perfectly on track and I threw up for the first time this morning! Good thing we had the saltines on hand! A little ginger ale and a few saltines and I was feeling much better.

Dr. Wonderful and Other Thoughts

My friend E just informed me that I am a blogging slacker so here is the post that has been brewing for the past few days.

On pregnancy notes the only symptom I have is sore boobs. I had taken to wearing one of Shazam's bra/tank things to bed to keep the girls contained and less sore. The only problem is that I am much larger than the dear wife so the system was not all that great. So we picked up a more suitable item while out at BrU the other day. I also made Shazam buy saltines Sunday just in case morning sickness starts this week. A girl should be prepared right?

I also made an appointment at the ob last week. I have been really torn about what to do regarding my prenatal and delivery. I have always thought that I would deliver with an ob at one of the big Boston hospitals. I was born at one and always wanted to have a n.i.c.u. at the hospital. I am a worrier so I like to be prepared. I in fact always thought I would probably not want to deliver at the hospital that I was born at and would opt for the hospital down the street. The only reason being, the walkway that connects the hospital I would deliver at is to Boston Children's hospital. Ok so I am a little paranoid but I am who I am. Well now that I am pregnant and actually have to decide about these things I am scrapping the plan I made. So here is where we stand. We absolutely loved the midwives that did our IUIs and are really torn about leaving the practice to deliver with an ob. On one hand I think it would be great, the other hand (the one that belongs to the worry wart) worries that I want to have a relationship with the ob if I need medical intervention during deliver.

My friend J recommended an awesome ob (Dr. Wonderful). Dr Wonderful hails from the republic of Cambridge and is everything a crunchy yet paranoid mother to be could want. She practices alone so she 99% guarantees that she will deliver your baby. She also has a midwife who also assists at your delivery. The best of both worlds all the medicine of an ob and the natural approach of a midwife. So I called Friday, this is 2 days after I found out I was pregnant and 14 days post iui and in reality the first day many women would know they were pregnant. It is only the first full week of the month so I figure I should be good to go. But no Dr. Wonderful is full for deliveries in September. What the hell?? Since I am due on 9/15 does this mean she is only delivering babies for the first 2 weeks of September????? The woman was really nice and put me on the waiting list. I know that she is popular because when I mentioned not being able to make an appointment with this great Dr. another friend said "Oh do you mean Dr. Wonderful?" If you call on the 9th day of a month you are out of luck which is crazy. My theory is that people call and say they are pregnant even though they are not yet and hold a place just in case they get pregnant that month. If you call on 1/1 and say that you are pregnant you get in for September then if you are not pregnant you call and cancel. So now we wait and see if we get to see Dr. Wonderful. In the mean time I made another appointment with a doctor recommended by another friend at the hospital in the town I work. They have a new l/d facility and are affiliated with the big city hospital that I thought I would want. So if I need to go to town due to complications then my Dr. can still see me.

My first appointment is next week. If I don't like them I can always go back to the midwives or perhaps Dr. Wonderful will want to be my doctor after all.

Poppy Seed? Sesame Seed?

There seems to be a seed confusion in SSG's uterus. There are endless due date trackers out there on-line and when SSG originally punched in numbers she was told she is in week 4 which would mean Baby X is the size of a mere poppy seed.  Well after some discussion, using different trackers, and looking at a calendar we're thinking she's actually in week 5 and therefore we've bumped up to a sesame seed! We are also thinking this is indeed week 5 because of when the doctor's office made appointments, which are 1/21 (week 6) and another in week 8.  Ok so a poppy seed to a sesame seed isn't a HUGE difference but for me the further along we are the more I can relax.  

Also to update everyone, SSG is feeling great (minus the very sore boobs), putting some yummy nutritious food in her body, and overall doing a fantastic job of nurturing our sesame seed! 

Excited and Cautious

I have yet to blog about the exciting news SSG shared so I thought I'd chime in about my thoughts. First and foremost thank you to all that commented and sent  your congratulations. We both appreciated it.  

Obviously I am walking on air this week and just sooo happy. I'm also in a little bit of shock because it's just so surreal. I, along with SSG, am also being a bit cautious and trying not to get too carried away. We're not naive people. We know it's very early in the process and as SSG read, what is in her uterus is a group of cells the size of a freakin' poppy seed! Crazy. We're thinking positive thoughts but things can happen so we really just want to get through the next 6 weeks or so before we go completely bananas. That is also why we haven't said anything to our families. Plus, I'm not quite sure how my mom is going to handle this news and this makes me nervous, but that is a blog for another time perhaps.

This week has also really put getting pregnant in perspective, more specifically how amazing it truly is when it happens.  So many things need to come together.  I think all too often we hear about people, friends, family about how easy it was or how they are having their second child, third child, etc..  It's not that easy and SSG and I have really felt for the handful of people we know personally that are struggling to get pregnant, both straight and lesbian couples. We know how lucky we are and we don't take that for granted. 

So we're going to keep thinking positive thoughts for our little poppy seed to keep thriving and we're sending positive thoughts to our friends. You will have your own little poppy seeds one day, I can just feel it!

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Yup, Super Sammy G seems to be pregnant. I took a hpt this morning and got 2 lines! So we are pregnant! Still has not sunk in yet but we are feeling good and I am excited (under statement). It is early so now we wait and see if this little bugger sticks around! Good news on this depressing rainy icy day! Seems like the sun is shining to me!

Lazy lazy lazy

Shazam and I both slept like shit last night. I slept in this morning and we both got right into our gym clothes when we got up. So it is after 1 pm and we have yet to go to the gym. Shazam had a headache this morning which lead to a slow start but really I am just enjoying chilling at home with my wife. We have been less then productive this staycation but I think we needed a little of that after our very busy couple of days at Christmas.

So now I need to get back into school mode and do lots of correcting and try to figure out what to teach this week. As much as I love my vacations I hate trying to get back into the swing of things. I can't even remember what the heck I was teaching before break. Ok I know the general content but I I don't remember exactly where I was. Oh the joys of teaching.

Day 8 piui is pretty slow. Maybe we will go to the grocery store to spice things today. We lead a pretty exciting life I do say.

waiting

So I think Shazam is doing a better job at waiting than I am. I have begun my monthly ritual of obsessively reading human embryology information on the web. I think if I read enough I can some how interpret any of the myriad of "symptoms" I am "observing" and determine if I am pregnant or not. Do I have any symptoms?? Not really. I am feeling a little crampy kind of like ovulation pain but lower. Probably just gas...but maybe???? I guess I just need to be patient but I am not doing well with it. It is 7 dpiui today and my period is due on Wednesday. We have not decided when to test, but I would guess we will test before then. We bought some tests tonight when we were at the drug store picking up some other items. When I got home I realized we still have a couple of digitals from the opks in the medicine cabinet so I guess we are really well prepared when the time comes.

So the wait goes on...At least I will have work next week to distract me (frown).

Hello 2009

So we made it through another holiday of driving between NH and MA to keep everyone happy. One of the cons of our families living so close...SSG and I end up spending half of Christmas in the car. We got through it and overall we had a fun day with our families. I love seeing my niece and two nephews on Christmas because really it's about the kids. We got an extra treat of SSG's sister actually saying "thank you" to us after she opened our present this year. (yes you did hear sarcasm and spite) My wife totally surprised me with an iPod Touch which is incredibly cool. It'a a very fun gadget and I'm a bit obsessed with it.

While SSG had the week off, as she's a teacher, I decided to take a vacation week because I hasn't taken a week off since our honeymoon in April. While I would have loved to go somewhere, it's just not in the financial cards. Have a little bit to go on wedding expenses, we're ya know trying to make a small person which isn't cheap, then add two car leases up in 2009. Gulp. So we're having what we they are now labeling a "staycation". We've been sleeping a lot, lounging on the couch, reading, and playing video games. Highly active. I'm becoming pretty good at Guitar Hero on my Wii. Now we have gone to the gym a couple times and that feels like a small victory. While I am getting some long overdue rest, I'm not 100% sure about this staycation thing. I feel unproductive and as my wife knows, I don't do well with this. It's hard for me to just sit. It's just how I'm wired. I've however decided that since we're trying to start a family I should enjoy the peace and quite while I can! On a side note, both my wife and I really aren't fans of New Year's Eve. It's just not important and it just seems like a silly so called "holiday", therefore we did nothing. We literally had leftovers and watched TV. We really are exciting.

Speaking of starting a family, we will probably be testing early next week. I must say this time I have no expectations and I've hardly thought about it. I think it's out of self preservation. I just don't want to have expectations and be disappointed. So we're just trying to have our vacation, spend time together, and what happens, happens.

Ahhh..2008. It was a year of chaos in the begging with all the wedding planning so we are looking forward to perhaps a quiet start to 2009. We'll see what the second half of 2009 brings..hopefully a cute, chubby baby!