The Traveling Raspberry and the Great Mommy Frisking

Monday (August 15th) was our third OBGYN appointment in three weeks. It is amazing how much has changed in that small span of time. The first week all we saw on the ultrasound was the gestational sac, which looked like a little black oval. The next appointment we saw a tiny little baby and a little heartbeat, but it was so tiny it was hard to see anything. This week it was amazing how much bigger the baby was! Although it still doesn't look like a baby yet, it has grown to be the size of a raspberry (or about 0.6 inches). The pictures below are somewhat fuzzy (very disappointing, but we had someone else taking the ultrasound pics this week), but you can see how much more space the baby takes up in the sac. We also saw and heard the heartbeat again. It was much stronger and faster at 170 bpm- hard to miss! The doctor says everything still appears very normal, which is reassuring. We're now clear to just go about our "normal" pregnant life until our next appointment on September 12th.

Last week Baby Rehovsky took his/her first real trip in Mommy's tummy. Jason and I flew up to Denver & Breckenridge with our friends Dave and Alisa to spend a few days out of the Texas heat and to celebrate Daddy's birthday. We had a lot of fun and did a lot of good eating! While Mommy couldn't participate in the alcohol embibement, everyone else appreciated the DD for Jason's birthday festivities in Breckenridge! Special thanks go out to our gracious hosts Dustin and Krista- thanks for the great time!

Today is Baby's second trip as Mommy went to Nashville for a quick business trip. (Sorry Nashvillians, I am literally here for 7 hours, 5 of which are in a meeting. Sorry I missed you guys!) The highlight was definitely getting the full body patdown in the middle of Houston Hobby airport. Apparently pregnancy is not a good enough reason to skip the full body scan machine and do the regular walk-through metal detector, so I got frisked in front of hundreds of people this morning. Good thing I'm not shy because I hear that all your modesty goes out the window during pregnancy and especially childbirth. This was just a mild preview. ;-)

Although we don't have another appointment for a month, we will try to keep posting updates as often as we can. Thank you everyone for all your love and support! We love you!

A beautiful sight

Yesterday morning was our second OBGYN appointment. We had another ultrasound and we were able to actually see the baby! On the left side of the sac is the baby (which still resembles an alien at this point), on the right is the yolk sac we saw last week. The ultrasound tech measured the fetus and said I am about 6 weeks and 4/5 days, which gives us the due date of March 25-26th.

Now for the cool part! We were actually able to see and HEAR a heartbeat!!! On the ultrasound it looks like just a little flicker of light, and then the tech put it on the speakers and we could hear a little swishy thump-thump sound. It was pretty incredible! The heartbeat was 117 bpm, which is normal at this early stage. I am going back on the 15th to see the heartbeat again, which should be up to about 150 bpm by that point. The doctor said everything looks great and totally normal at this point, which we were happy to hear. All in all in was a great morning. :-)

Even before our appointment yesterday, this has been a pivotal week in the pregnancy. Starting on Monday I've been having "morning" sickness (I've heard it also fondly referred to as hormone poisoning) for the better part of the day. Luckily I haven't actually been sick yet, but is still pretty miserable. It's a constant swing between feeling nauseous and starving all day, and eating something usually just leads to nausea again. I have been craving interesting foods (not necessarily weird, just different) this week too. On Thursday night I INSISTED that Jason take me to a Japanese restaturant for hibachi. (see pic below) That's a first!

I'm also starting to feel more and more tired every day. (Hence the reason why I didn't have the energy last night to update the blog!) I've gotten in the habit of taking a little nap every night when I get home from work, then still going to bed by 10:00! As difficult as some of these symptoms are physically, both Jason and I are so happy because we know they are all good signs that the pregnancy is going well. Yesterday was incredible being able to actually see our baby. We are so excited to be parents and welcome this blessed child into our lives. Less than eight months to go!!!

Here we go . . .

Welcome to our baby blog!!! We would like to document our journey towards our little one's arrival in order to share our great news with all of our family and friends, starting at the beginning . . .

This all started last Monday (July 18th) when my monthly cycle was already 2 days late. We were a little curious but didn't think too much of this since we had not been trying too hard so far to get pregnant. Nevertheless, we took a test and, although it said it would take 3 minutes, the test came back positive within 30 seconds. We were both in shock (and disbelief), so we took another test from another brand just to be sure . . . And sure enough, it was positive within 30 seconds again. So then reality sunk in and we were very excited, emotional, and shocked all that the same time.

The first week was hard because we were really trying not to tell anyone! That didn't last long. By Thursday we had told our closest friends at work, who were probably wondering why I was drinking only water at work everyday and had to pee every hour. On Thursday night we called all of Jason's family to tell them. All grandparents and aunts and uncles were delighted! There was lots of screaming during those phone calls!

The hardest thing that week was talking to my parents on the phone and not telling them our great news. We really wanted to tell them in person, so Saturday morning we piled in the car with the two dogs and headed down to Port A to surprise them. I think we succeeded! :-) We spent the night with them at the beach to celebrate, calling Uncle Matt in the meantime to fill him in.

We had our first OBGYN appointment this morning in order to confirm what a few pregnancy tests (okay, six pregnancy tests!) had already told us. The ultrasound tech said we are about 5 weeks 3 days along. It was too early to see a heartbeat yet, but we did get to see the gestational sac where the baby is hanging out. We also saw the yolk sac, which the tech said was a very good sign that everything is on track. We met with our doctor for a few minutes to talk through some of our questions. Our next appointment is next Friday morning when we should be able to see a heartbeat on the ultrasound!

So far the pregnancy is going smoothly. I haven't had any morning sickness yet, but I have definitely noticed some changes occurring in my body. Daddy is doing great, telling everyone he can the news with a big proud smile on his face! We are both very excited about our bundle of joy on the way and can't wait to meet him/her. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful network of family and friends to support us over the next 8 months. Thank you everyone for sharing in this truly magical time of our lives with us!