Music to my ears

Here's a little snippet of the wonderful sounds of our baby's heartbeat that we love to listen to with our at home Doppler (click here to see the actual Doppler product):

Was that a kick?!

Yesterday was a big milestone for this first-time mama. While I was sitting waiting for our car to get serviced, I felt some bubbling in my tummy. However, I soon started to feel like this bubbling had a unique difference than the same old indigestion I've experienced. I almost can't describe how I was different, it just seemed to be in a different spot and be more random than usual, while still holding a pattern all it's own. I almost sheepishly texted Jacob to tell him I thought I felt the baby.

Having no idea what it feels like to have a baby move inside me, I felt almost silly claiming it. However, later that night, I was convinced. Jacob suggested we use our at-home Doppler (which I LOVE having) so we listened to the heart beat for a while. Then I noticed loud movement sounds that seemed to be coming through as well, and THEN I matched a few of those sounds up to the feelings of bubbly movement I had been feeling. One time I could even SEE the baby move at the same time too.

What a fun experience! I can't wait to feel more movement and kicks and for Jacob to feel them too!

FINALLY getting a little baby bump!

One week of Zofran, the miracle drug, has meant one week of eating decent and keeping it down...so I've finally gotten a little bit of a baby bump going at 17 weeks along!

Although I am (as always) dreaming of a white Christmas, this picture was taken at a White Out themed Christmas party w/ friend from church, hence the all-white setup :)

Also scheduled our 20 week ultrasound for January 5th so we'll know for sure soon if it's a boy or girl!

Zofran, I love you.

In case you read my post when I started 2nd trimester and stated that all is well-disregard it.  I was gifted about 4 or 5 days of relief at the end of my 2nd trimester without too much sickness and then it kicked right back up again.  After several more weeks of this misery, I couldn't take it anymore, and called my doctor to beg for mercy.  Since I was nearly to 16 weeks and still getting sick all the time, the doctor indeed had mercy on my poor, sick soul  They prescribed Zofran for me, which is an anti-nausea medicine that is typically used for chemo and radiation patients. 
This pill changed my life-I went from spending half my day running to the toilet to no longer feeling nauseous one bit!  Although as I write this it is only Day 2 of Zofran Euphoria, I'm holding fast to hope that it will prove a long term solution.  I can't describe the immensity of relief I feel from getting some rest from the sickness that seemed to be ever-increasing.  Also, Zofran is considered completely safe for pregnancy, which helps me enjoy this all the more.  Now, I may actually get the chance to eat full meals and start gaining a cute little baby bump!

Baby's buddies in the making

One of the really fun things about being pregnant is finding out that a friend of yours is pregnant too!  Somehow being pregnant seems to attract other pregos-the lady who did my hair today even happened to be pregnant.
Right now it seems to be a major trend to get knocked up, which means our baby will have plenty of friends all born right around the same time.  We love to start counting these baby friends, and I love to have friends who I can share prego hopes/miseries with as we experience it together.  Many of these friends are also first-time mamas like me!

As far as I know right now, I have 7 first-time mama friends pregnant with me (1 w/ twins!) and 2 others that are on their 2nd/3rd.

Also, the girls seem to be ruling the crowd!  There's 2 baby girls on the way in that group and 1 boy, with the rest TBD.  Doesn't hurt that there's about an 80% chance we're also having a girl, according to our 12 week ultrasound.

Our friends the Thompsons just revealed they're having a girl!

Me with mamas of my babies' friends:

Lifelong friend Katie Hanchinamani is due with TWINS and just 1 day ahead of me in her pregnancy

Mama Karen, due with baby girl Thompson in April

Mama Taryn, due with baby Lombardo #2 in June and Jen due with Kingston James Crowell in January

Trying to grow that baby bump

Well, it's week 14, and it's getting close to the time where baby's growth could/should start showing soon!
I have found myself googling pictures of baby bellies and looking up pictures on facebook posted by friends through their pregnancy to try to predict what is to come.  So far, I have just enough of a pooch that I can tell the difference, but it's not yet noticeable.  Excited for when the baby bump really comes, not as excited for the in-between stage where I just look bloated.

This is me at 14 weeks-starting to show a little bump!

Luckily, the holidays are coming up, so as long as my appetite stays up and my nausea stays down, I should have much more to show after all of those events!

We already started out holiday feasting with a pre-Thanksgiving dinner with great friends last weekend.

Jacob carving his first turkey.

The joys of 2nd trimester

At the absolute last day of my first trimester, my world changed.  I had an entire day without the urge to throw up.  What's more, I had an entire day when I was productive, energetic, and felt capable!  This was such a joy after over a month of misery.  I felt like there was light at the end of the tunnel.  For anyone who's never experienced a rough first trimester, I'm sure I sound overly dramatic.  For anyone who has, you know exactly what I'm talking about.  I still don't feel as good as I did pre-pregnancy, but I feel SO much better than I had about a week prior. 

Let me be clear for the record-I've heard many times that pregnancy can be tough, and first trimester is the toughest, but I had NO idea how hard it can be!! I have such a deeper respect for moms across the world.  In the end, I dealt with a little over 4 weeks of complete misery, but in those moments of misery, it felt like it was an eternity.

The other joy of second trimester is the peace knowing that your baby is exponentially more safe and your risk of miscarriage has dropped dramatically.  This peace of mind is so amazing.

Lastly, second trimester means it's time for your 12 week ultrasound.  It was so fun to see our baby, now with arms and legs moving about!  We were able to see all 10 fingers and a few toes.  Also, the nurse tech we saw is skilled in early prediction of gender.  So, while she insisted that she's definitely not 100% right, she was pretty quick to say it looks like a girl!  We'll find out for sure at 20 weeks.

Here's a few of our first photos of the baby from our first 3 ultrasounds:

Here's our baby at 6 weeks...just a little tadpole

Here's the baby at 8 weeks (much worse quality as it was on the portable ultrasound machine)

Here's the baby at 12 weeks, over 10X as big as the first picture at 6 weeks!

Here's our little baby legs, all stretched out.  No doubt these will grow into some long baby legs.

Baby's first gifts

Our baby is so blessed!  Even before I finished the 1st trimester, baby already had a collection of gifts from family & friends.
Below are the first presents our baby ever received.
In order of when we got them....there was an adorable outfit from our friend Alicia, a cute little pacifier from Ali that she bought when we were in New Orleans (little did we know that Sienna Overfield and Jantzen Putnam have the same one in different colors!), a super soft soothing sounds lamb from Kristina & Peter Beckerman all the way from Boston, the 'magic rattle' from our Auntie Julie Becklund (she brought it the day we announced my pregnancy to the Tobiason because she had a hunch the announcement was coming), a picture of me as a baby from Grandma Lois so we can have it to compare my looks when the baby comes, and a super cute book of baby names from my friend Lauren.
Can't wait for baby to enjoy all these gifts!

Traveling with extra baggage

During the first 3 months of my pregnancy, I traveled on 3 big trips!  All of these trips were, of course, booked before I was pregnant so once they came, I had to deal with whatever state I was in at the time and go for it.

Italy was obviously the biggest and the first, in which pregnancy hadn't yet affected my ability to travel and I was feeling great-able to do pretty much everything I could do pre-pregnancy.  This was during weeks 4-6 of pregnancy.

The next trip was a work trip to New Orleans for the Community Food Securities Coalition Conference.  This trip was during my 9th week of pregnancy, and it was a whole different experience than traveling to Italy.  The day after traveling cross-country, I felt so worn out and beat up that I spent the whole day in the hotel room feeling miserable (luckily the conference sessions hadn't yet started and I had a project I needed to work on).  This was officially the worst I had felt in my pregnancy.
My good friends Ali & Joel Broom arrived the following day and helped me so much through the next few days.  I got the "waves" of nausea during this time and they were so patient and helpful!  Somehow I made it through the conference too and managed to learn a lot of new things as well.

Fun times despite feeling yucky with the Brooms

The one night I felt good enough to go out for dinner; on Canal Street

How could you not feel better hanging out with these two?? :)

The last trip was another work trip to Florida for the Grant Professional Association Conference.  Boy, if I thought I felt sick in New Orleans, I had no idea how bad it could get!  This was now on week 12, and the gentle waves of nausea had progressed into sprints for the toilet.  I actually ran out of a conference event at one point for fear I was about to throw up in the middle of the luncheon.  Luckily, Jacob met me in Florida at the end of the conference and worked his 'magic' on me.  Strangely enough, even though by that point I had thrown up MANY times, it had never happened when I was with Jacob (he teased that I was making it all up).  And, sure enough, once he arrived, my morning toilet-hugging rituals subsided.  There was one day when he left to go pick up our rental car and I threw up while he was gone...after this I started to fear him being away at all!
Thankfully, despite it all, we were able to take a slower pace but still enjoy our mini-vacay in Florida with time at the beach, visiting Disney World, an Orlando Magic game, and lots of good time together.

On the beach in Florida at 12 weeks

At the Orlando Magic game-fun to be a part of an NBA game for the first time in years!

Driving at the Tomorrowland Speedway-somehow I managed not to get carsick

Best part of being pregnant at Disney World? If you go to Guest Services and tell them, they give you a Guest Assistance Card.  Flash that bad boy and it basically gets you to the front of every line!!

Enjoying all the Christmas decorations and lights at the Magic Kingdom in Disney World

Getting our last bit of Florida sun at the Hawaiian mini golf course

Moral of the story: traveling cross-country in the peak of your 1st trimester, is a rough road to take (at least if you're me)

Ah, symptoms...

Pregnancy symptoms are a blessing and a curse in early pregnancy.  You crave them, worry when they're gone, and analyze each one.  Each pregnancy symptom is a sign that your baby is likely healthy and growing.  On the other hand, each symptom is also a trip to the bathroom, a cancellation of a meeting, an afternoon lying on the couch, or an extra layer of cover up on your face.
In the end, I've decided thus far that every symptom is worth the price of inconvenience and discomfort for my baby's sake.  I've basically come to grips with the fact that my body is not my own for the next 7 months...I'm still allowed to use it and be a part of it, but its primary purpose is baby growing.  The hormones that cause my annoying symptoms also cause my baby's growth, so that's fair to me.

Tricks I've learned for some of them:

• Acne: Load up on your concealer and cover up-I've discovered all new techniques and layers for concealer by necessity. They say salicylic acid is probably ok to use while pregnant-I decided to take the chance on that one. For rash-like breakouts, I got the great tip from my friend Quincy to use cortisone cream for a couple days.  Eventually, I had to visit my dermatologist and beg for help, and he gave me some erythamyacin which helped (safer during pregnancy than topicals like benzyol peroxide)
• Bloating/constipation: Hello, Miralax.  Or, you could get the flu like I did, take a bunch of Tylenol, and then have the opposite problem....
• Diarrhea: Drinking TONS of water.  Like, almost more water than I can stand.
• Fatigue/tiredness:  Sleep 10+ hours a night and lay on the couch as much as possible.  So, that's not really a solution, but it's all that you wanna do in those times.
• Nausea: I have yet to figure out how to deal with this one well.  For a few weeks, I had a ton of nausea that just hangs out all day (no puking) which can be debilitating.  Then it moved into classic morning sickness, which clock-like pukes every day.  Sometimes it feels good to get it out, but others not.  Anyway, no fun. My friend Julia suggested mint tea, which has helped a couple times, and the other staples work at times,  (saltines, sprite, ginger ale, minty gum, potato chips, gatorade, eating before getting out of bed, etc) but many times, there's just no getting around it.

Other fun symptoms:

• Complete inability to concentrate on more than one thing.  I am a proud super-multi-tasker, and this baby has rendered me nearly useless at moments.
• Sounding like an idiot occasionally by saying ditzy/mindless comments (although these moments are pretty entertaining for my husband).  For you critics out there, I most definitely am blaming this on the pregnancy, whether or not you believe me. :)

BEST part of pregnancy symptoms=having supportive friends and family who give you care and sympathy when you're feeling your worst.  Most of all, having the world's most amazing husband who takes such good care of me when I feel rotten!

Breaking the news!

Once we got back from Italy, we had to find the perfect way to share our baby joy with the people we love most.  Getting to tell them our most exciting news was very fun.  We worked hard to tell as many people in person as possible and loved to have them share in our excitement!  A few highlights...

We staged a family dinner at my parents with the excuse for the get together being that we wanted to see our baby niece Sienna and little nephew Brayden (which is quite true, since I'm in love with those two and we hadn't seen baby Sienna since right after she was born).  Right before dinner, we mentioned that we had gifts for Brayden & Sienna.  As we handed out the gifts one by one, my sister Jill started exclaiming "What does that mean??!  What does that mean!!!!???", with no one responding as Jacob first gave Brayden a shirt reading "Cousin #1" and Sienna a onesie that said "Cousin #2".  When Jill could barely stand it anymore, I stood up and revealed my own t-shirt that read "Cousin #3" on my stomach.  Mom & Dad, Jill & Brett, and Papa & Grandma erupted into cheers at this point.  It was a very fun 'reveal' moment!

Showing off our matching shirts: Cousin #1, Cousin #2, and Cousin #3 in my belly!

So excited to give my niece and nephew a 1st cousin!

Sienna got tired from TOO MANY pictures :)

A couple days later, we had our Washburn family over for dinner, telling them we wanted to share our pictures from Italy (also true).  We did, indeed, show all the highlights from the many photos of our trip, but also then had another surprise right before dinner.  My mother-in-law, Jan, has asked us to pick up a Starbucks souvenir mug in Italy to add to her collection (the ones with the city names on them).  However, we couldn't find a Starbucks anywhere in the entire country, so we had gotten her a souvenir mug from the Cinque Terre.  She was thrilled when we handed this to her, not realizing a bigger thrill was waiting inside the mug.  We had put a baby figurine and our first ultrasound pictures in the mug.  Everyone saw it as she opened it and was so excited.  Jonnie, my brother-in-law, filmed the whole thing secretly because we had let him in on the secret a couple days prior.

Another favorite 'reveal' was when we told our good friends the Stockmans and the Lofstroms.  Lindsay Lofstrom and I made a pact a while back that as soon as I get pregnant, she would too.  Because of this, she had been asking me nearly every time we're together if I was pregnant.  When we saw everyone at Scott Stockman's (championship-winning!) baseball game after getting back from Italy, I was certain Lindsay would ask right away...and for once, she didn't.  Finally I said "Lindsay, aren't you going to ask?" and she replied "oh, yeah, are you pregnant?" and I casually responded "yes".  My casual response combined with Lindsay's fear that she was then 'up to bat' for baby making caused her and Alicia Stockman to be convinced that I was lying for a good 20 minutes (despite Jacob backing me up, me telling her details about my doctor visit, due date, etc.).  Finally, she believed me, then spent the next 10 minutes or so feeling guilty for calling my poor pregnant self a liar.  It was great entertainment nonetheless to have them be certain we were tricking them-who knew we had such a reputation for being tricksters??
Here's the group (with the champion baseball player) on the night we told them all:

Prego in the land of 'Prego'

On the Island of Capri at 4 and a half weeks along!

I spent almost 3 weeks of my first trimester in Italy...

Pros:

• Made it easy to keep the pregnancy a secret for the first few weeks
• Got to eat out every meal
• Got to tell anyone I met that I was pregnant at no risk of ruining the surprise back home. However, no one seemed to ask if I was (weird), so no one really knew...There was one time on the airplane when the flight attendant asked if I was pregnant.  I got so nervous wondering how she knew since this was such a secret and thought about lying until she gave a glance at the book I was reading: "What to Expect When You're Expecting" and then I relaxed and said yes.  She was suddenly the first person besides me and Jacob to know I was pregnant, a huge deal!  Alas, she had no idea the magnitude of the moment as she continued down the aisle asking people to buckle their seat belts.
• Jacob and I were able to take time to digest and believe that I was actually pregnant and talk about it all day every day as we spent tons of time together
• I was in Italy, that's just sweet whether or not you're pregnant!

Cons:

• Italian wine & cheese=off-limits to pregnant ladies :(  I actually looked up how to say 'pasteurized' in Italian so I could ask if the cheese was pasteurized.  In the end, it didn't get me that far.  Most of the time when I asked and they said "yeah, sure" I didn't quite believe that they understood what I was asking, so I steered clear anyway.
• Pasta, pizza (only when the cheese was cooked enough to be bubbling), and bread are a perfect recipe for bloating early in pregnancy.  Thankfully, this was somewhat welcome, as I was desperate to experience pregnancy symptoms and felt engorged yet excited after every meal to be convinced that I, indeed, must be pregnant to be so bloated.
• Biggest con=having unexpected spotting while across the globe from your doctor and without any family or friends knowing you are pregnant.  It was a very scary night in Venice when this happened, only solved by crying until I couldn't do anything but sleep and then get the doctor's office reassuring email the next day.  Thank the Lord that this was at the end of our trip!

Before You Know It...

Jacob and I decided that after our epic trip to Italy we would be open and up for a baby to come.  This loosely translated into us "not trying not to" as of September.  However, with the hyper-fertile genes that women in my family seem to carry, this meant that we were pregnant even before we left on the trip!
Taking the pregnancy test was a fun experience.  I had bought a pack of 100 pregnancy test online at Amazon recently (Why not?? It was only $10 for 100, and I love a good deal) so I had been taking a test every day or two, just for fun.
One of those days, after taking another test, I seemed to notice a very faint second line-or at least I thought I did.  I pulled Jacob in the bathroom to look at it, and we both squinted and turned our heads in many funny angles trying to decipher whether or not there was truly a second pink line.  We both felt somewhat confident that our brains were playing tricks on us, but we were also just slightly more confident that we were indeed seeing double when it came to those pink lines.
We waited dramatically until the night of Jacob's birthday to spring for a decent pregnancy test at the drug store.  We went for the one that took out the guesswork-it either said "Pregnant" or "Not Pregnant"-no squinting needed.
I took the test and prepared to wait the tense 3 minutes for the results.  About 10 seconds later, as Jacob carried the test stick to the other room for us to sit anxiously together, he said "Does it usually have 'Pregnant' show up first and then the 'Not' show up later?"  I decided that would be far too cruel and unusual punishment, and ran over to inspect.  There it was: "Pregnant".  With that moment, we looked at each other with the realization that our lives had just changed forever, in a good way (as our friend Robert would say).

That's so cliche

So I have to confess-here I am, another Mama-To-Be, starting a blog.  I feel like it's so cliche to do such a thing, but I've decided I'm ok with it.  You see, I have a minor attitude about wanting to be original and creative, rather than copy other's ideas.  Starting a blog now that I'm pregnant goes directly against that.  However, I have enough friends that I've seen start a blog when they start motherhood, and I love these blogs!  I find them to be beautiful diaries of baby's beginnings and the family's growth.  So, while I provide the disclaimer of not wanting to be cliche, I fully recognize the value of a baby blog and therefore dive in head first.  Here I go!