A Word From Your Host

I am actually the host to our fetus! This is Mom-To-Be posting.

The first few weeks have been documented, and they were thrilling. From that first double line on the pregnancy test (pee stick?) - to the first bout of queasiness - to the first craving (baby wants ice cream, of course!). After week 12 passed, I felt much more comfortable sharing the news and settling in for the long haul. We've been hoping that everything 'sticks'. As normal as healthy pregnancies are, we wanted to be on guard and cautious.

Now it's nearly week 15! The nausea is mostly gone, but the exhaustion is not. Fetuses are little parasites that make you want to sleep for many hours a day. They do have a big job, with all of the growing they are doing. I certainly don't begrudge my increased appetite or that no one lets me exert too much. My plan is to give the fetus enough sleep, and keep on watching what I eat, taking my vitamins and monitoring my health. Sleep is the hardest one. I can't seem to wake up before 8 am! Doesn't fetus know that I need to work?

My clothes aren't fitting quite right, so I'm already wearing the comfy maternity pants or loose jeans. They are too big, my other clothes are too small. I feel like Goldilocks! Fetus is growing quickly, so hopefully this won't last long. No one wants to see my plumber's crack.

About once a week, fetus-Dad and I read through the book 'What to Expect When You're Expecting' before bed. It's the ubiquitous tome, a nice overall reference if rather general. Lots of fun, though, to read the descriptions of fetal development and growth. Sometimes all of the size descriptions (which are always fruit or vegetables) make me hungry!

The next appointment will just be a physical and genetic screening. My estimate is that the 'fundus' (in this case, the top of my uterus) is just below my belly button. We will probably have another ultrasound at 20 weeks - I think that will be the 'anatomy scan'. We are going to find out the sex and will be happy to share that info. The names we have in mind are secret though!

It's a marathon, not a sprint

Wondering how many people thought I already forgot about this.  Again....first-time blog = wanting to post a lot of crap, almost every day.  Who knew I had so much crap in me (please don't answer that :-D ).  The wife said the best thing was to make it weekly, so that I don't overload my audience.  I'm like "you think we'll have an audience?".  Sure enough, there's a few followers.  So to my following peeps..."am I that entertaining?"  If so, then you're welcome :-).  The wife was suppose to post as well, but she's been busy.  In fact, she's busy helping move her mom as I type.  Now...before you /gasp...all the big stuff is done, she's helping with "end-game" moving.  A box here, a box there, a file cabinet or two to move (hee hee).  In all seriousness, she won't be touching anything heavy.  We did most of the main moving yesterday.  Family and friends would not have her lift anything short of a small box.  Pregnancy does have it's privileges. 

Going off-track here; we spent 12 hours moving my mum-n-law.  12 hours and it's still not finished!  If moving had frequent flyer miles, I could've gotten a free trip somewhere.  It wasn't too painful, but man...and to my mum (because odds are good she will be seeing this), please don't move again.  If you do move though, do it within the same county/zip code plleeeeaaaasse.  If you can't do that....hire professional movers and have a packing party instead.  We'll love you for it :-D

Okay....on to baby stuff.  I think we're ending week 13 and moving on to 14.  We're just 1/3 into the pregnancy and it's felt like forever.  I just keep telling myself that by the 3rd trimester, things will pick up fast.  The wife is already showing and so far things are going well.  She's still tired, so I'm surprised she went over to help a bit more with moving.  She's still "eating all the things" and that's great, I think.  She's kicked off the Diet Coke completely (thought I'd never see that).  One thing that I find fascinating is all the baby-related items people have ready for us.  Okay...maybe not for us, per se....but it's interesting on that aspect.  It's like people save up their baby/pregnancy items cause they know someday, someone else will be needing them.  I think it's great, being able to recycle items and passing things back n forth (although I raise my eyebrows to a used breast pump).  How do baby stores keep in business?  I mean, how the hell am I suppose to spent $$ and be a filthy consumer if people already have items for us??  Oh well, I guess more money for blu rays (yay!!!!!).

Tale of the tape

5:30 in the morning...early for a Saturday, but can't sleep anymore.  Noises of my dogs chewing themselves, combined with my wife's insulin pump constantly beeping...and what topped it off is that I heard my wife's DROID get an email!  Yup, I'm a light sleeper nowadays.  Probably good practice for when the baby comes.  In fact, I should practice having broken sleep.  From what I hear, one would be lucky if I get an hour or two....without interruption.

People on Facebook are asking the standard questions that come with pregnant announcements, hence the title of this blog.  So enjoy...
- We're in 'Week 12' of the pregnancy.  So far the fetus looks very good
- Due date looks to be the 2nd or 3rd week of Dec. (Dec 20th was the initial guesstimate)
- We do want to know the sex of the baby (I feel it's good for planning)
- We do have first and middle names picked out already (and they're secret until the birth)
- Wife is automatically considered a "high-risked" pregnancy, because of her diabetes. 
- The name for now is 'Cletus'...cause it rhymes with fetus and technically, that's what it is at this moment.  Yes, we are weird  :-)

There is one positive thing we found (it's true...there was one positive thing coming out of a high risk scenario)...we get increased ultrasounds.  Our doctor will want us in more often for these checkups and we're more than happy to oblige.  More ultrasounds = more fetus/inside the womb pics.  I think that's it for this morning.  Another busy day coming up...maybe I can try and get one or two more hours of shuteye.

I have no clue what I'm doing

So here goes nothing.  Me and the wife just announced the coming of our first baby.  Is it exciting?...of course!  Do people love a good baby announcement, most certainly do...can it get crazy with all the updates and pictures of said little one?....uh, yeah!  We posted simple messages via Facebook (well, I added an ultrasound shot).  What came next was a deluge of "congrats", "we're happy for you", and all that good jazz.  It's great, but it can get very overwhelming.  So I thought 'why not use a private blog for baby updates'.  That way, if people are interested in our jabbering of all things birth and baby, they can come to this blog.  I'm also hoping to provide a place to get advice and suggestions on everything pregnant-related, without hammering our Facebook Wall.

Another reason I chose a blog is for my non-kid friends/family.  While we know alot of people on Facebook that have kids, we know an equal amount of people that don't.  This ensures people don't get hammered with  "look! Our fetus is moving!!!" postings...It pretty much leaves our Facebook free for other things to yammer about.  Who knows, maybe we won't get alot of followers...maybe we'll get bored updating this blog, it gets cobwebs and becomes forgotten.   But until then, I have alot on my mind and I'm willing to share...on the next post cause I gotta run.