This is how I feel

Baby Blueberry

This week our baby is about 1/2" - the size of a blueberry. "Baby's brain -- both hemispheres! -- is growing fast, generating about 100 new cells every minute. Arms and legs are emerging as joints start to form, and a permanent set of kidneys (baby's third!) is now in place."

We had an appointment with our actual OB today and absolutely 100% LOVE her. Dr. B is amazing and is just what I need. We started the appointment out with an ultrasound and heard the most amazing sound - our baby's heartbeat!! I thought we'd just see it again like we did last week, so this was such a surprise. The woosh woosh of the beating heart was the most beautiful sound we've ever heard.

Here is a picture of our baby! The arrow is probably pointing towards the back, but as far as where the head is, that's anyone's guess. It's hard to tell but the baby is sort of curled up at this point. Sort of reminds me of a roly poly.



To help sort of figure out what you're looking at, here is a picture of what the baby looks like at this stage.


There haven't been many changes since my post last week. Still pretty exhausted and living in a constant state of nausea. I've been reading up on tips for the "morning" sickness so hopefully something will help soon.

I've had some tugging in my lower belly, which is normal seeing as my uterus is apparently now twice the size it was just 5 weeks ago. Another interesting little tidbit is that I now have 10% more blood than I did before I was pregnant. This and the extra fluid being processed in my kidneys explains why I'm waking up in the middle of the night to pee. I think Jason and I may have to switch sides of the bed so I can be closer to the bathroom - I hear it's only going to increase from here!

That's all for now!

Estimated due date

I realized that I have forgotten to mention something pretty important. Our EDD (estimated due date) is 2/22/10. So not too long after my 30th birthday - happy birthday to me!! :)

Our baby is a sweet pea!

So this week Baby Fletcher is the size of a sweet pea. "Growing like crazy, baby is starting to sprout eyes, ears, nose, cheeks and chin. Those little hands and feet- still webbed like paddles- might wiggle by week's end, the heart is beating (almost twice as fast as yours!), and blood is starting to circulate."

.25 inches - that's so tiny! It's amazing to me that we've already seen the little heart beating. I have been carrying the ultrasound picture with me in my purse (hey before that it was the pregnancy test!) just to keep looking at it to make myself believe this is actually happening.

Although frankly, my "symptoms" should be telling me that enough. Before we knew/right afterwards I mostly just had a headache and was burping a lot. (And actually that week before we knew, Jason kept laughing at me in the evenings and calling me a boy with all of my burping.) Since then the headache has gone away, I've started peeing more, and our baby has started to let me know what foods he/she does NOT want. Sometimes it seems like pretty much everything. I struggle in the mornings and again in the afternoon. And sometimes around dinner. And when grocery shopping. The past few days it seems that anytime food is involved, I start gagging. It's not so much that I can't keep down food I eat, but that I have a hard time even getting to the eating point. I tried talking to baby this morning. "I like food. I like to eat. Please be nice to me." So far that hasn't helped. I will say that as of right now, fruit and graham crackers/peanut butter are my friends. I've also been pretty tired and just lay on the couch most evenings.

I had an appt today with the OB Nurse Educator to go over things I need to know/what to eat/rules/etc. Example - don't clean the litter box. Jason has been wonderful and started doing that right when we found out. I also got tons more samples of prenatal vitamins. We will have yet another ultrasound next week and our first appt with our OB (hereby known as Dr. B.) I've heard such great things about her and can't wait to meet her.

So that's what's going on! Now it's time for a nap. :)

"Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans"

Jason and I have some wonderful news to share!!



We're having a baby!!! We found out about two weeks ago and couldn't be happier (or more surprised!) Jason wasn't home when I tested so I made a tshirt that said "baby" and waited for him. I'm pretty sure his first reaction was saying "No way!" over and over again. We've been living in shock ever since that night!

It's so hard to actually believe that this is happening to us! We had gone active with our adoption agency just a week and a half before we found out. (So yes, we're "that" cliche!)

I've had a few blood tests and 2 ultrasounds so far - the most recent was today. Today was the most beautiful and amazing experience - we got to see our baby's heart beat! Below is a picture from the ultrasound - it shows the gestational sac, the yolk sac, the fetal pole (the baby), and the heart! Just amazing!



Our first family picture!


There will be many updates to come!

Let the waiting begin!

As of Wednesday morning, we are active with our adoption agency! This means that all we do now is wait for a birth mom to pick us, while trying to be as patient as possible. (Easier said than done!) The agency sent us a copy of our 5 page bio last week and we absolutely love it. As long as we meet her specific criteria, they’ll give a copy of the bio to each birth mom. It includes a “Dear Expecting Mom” letter, 2 pages of text about us, and then 2 pages of pictures. It’s hard to portray who we really are in that short amount of space, but we think the agency did a wonderful job. We also have a small profile on the agency’s website under featured families. (See picture below.)

We are so excited to be at this point! We’ve started slowly buying some things for the baby, which has been so much fun. It’s hard for someone like me, who likes to plan, because we have no idea when this will happen, or how much notice we’ll actually have. We don’t plan to do much until after the baby is actually here, but will have some of the basics. After one of our very first meetings with the agency, Jason and I went out to Babies R Us and bought the first outfits for our baby. It’s hard to even explain the way we felt when we got to do that. Since then I’ve picked up a few other sleepers/onesies that I just couldn’t resist. We’ve also looked at bedding and have a boy and a girl set in mind. Both have the same color green in them, so we plan to go ahead and paint the nursery sometime soon. We also have most of the nursery furniture taken care of. We’re going to use a dresser/hutch that we bought on Craigs List, and through the amazing kindness of friends, we now own (although don’t have possession of yet) a crib and changing table. We are also going to use the cradle that my grandpa built before I was born.

Other than that, we’re just going to try to stay busy. Our local hospital offers a parenting class, specifically for adopting parents. It’s called “Parents at Last!” We can’t wait to take that!

We’re also trying to get everything in order for our adoption garage sale. We’ve been amazed at what people have already donated for us to sell. If anyone else has anything that they just want gone from their house, please let me know! We’ll come pick it up from you! Right now the tentative date for the sale is July 10th/11th.

I hope everyone is doing well! We’ll keep you updated of anything that happens. Please keep Jason and I, our future birth mom, and our baby in your prayers while we wait.

Today is our class!

After a crazy few weeks of physicals, background checks, gathering pictures - we turn it all in today! We have an all day class at the agency and will 2/3 of the way done afterwards. And then on Monday they are coming to actually do our home visit -eek! My mom has been awesome and has been over this week to do the cleaning, while we worked on the paperwork. And then we'll wait! It will be about 3-4 weeks before they finish the bio and the homestudy report, but then we'll be active. And then we'll wait some more! :)